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Among the Isles of Shoals, 



By CELIA THAXTER. 

// 

amitfj EUustrattons* 




"Only to hear and see the far-off sparkling brine." 

Tennyson. 



BOSTON: 
JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY, 

Late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co. 
1873. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, 
BY JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO., 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



University Press : Welch, Bigelow, & Co., 
Cambridge. 



LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS. 

— •— 

White Island, looking Southwest from 

ApPLEDORE ...... Frontispiece. 

Trap Dike, Appledore . . . ' . . Page 18 

White Island "120 

View from the Southeastern Point of 

Appledore " 180 



i 



1 



m-^^^^e^^^^^^^ir^ 



r§^ 



r^^^T is with reluctance that I suifer these 
jj^T^I fi'agmentary and inadequate sketches of 
" ^ the Isles of Shoals to appear in book 

form. Except that some account of the place, 
however slight, is so incessantly called for bv 
people who throng these islands in summer, I 
should hardly venture to offer to the public so 
imperfect a chronicle, of which the most that 
can be said is, that it is, perhaps, better than 
nothing. 



^ 



8 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

scribable influence in their atmosphere, hardl}^ to be 
explained, but universally acknowledged. People 
forget the hurry and worry and fret of life after 
living there awhile, and, to an imaginative mind, 
all things become dreamy as they were to the 
lotus-eaters, to whom 

" The gushing of the wave 
Far, far away did seem to mourn and rave 
, On alien shores." 

m-' 

The eternal sound of the sea on every side has 
a tendency to w^ear away the edge of human 
thought and perception; sharp outlines become 
blurred and softened like a sketch in charcoal; 
nothing appeals to the mind w4th the same dis- 
tinctness as on the mainland, amid the rush and 
stir of people and things, and the excitements of 
social life. This was strikingly illustrated during 
the late war, which, while it wrung the heart of 
the whole country, and stirred the blood of every 
man, woman, and child on the continent, left the 
handful of human beings upon these lonely rocks 
almost untouched. The echoes of woe and terror 
were so faint and far they seemed to lose their 
significance among the many-voiced waters they 
crossed, and reached at last the indifferent ears they 
sought with no more force than a spent wave. 

Nine miles of the Atlantic Ocean intervene be- 



AMOya THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 9 

tween these islands and the nearest point of the 
coast of New Hampshire ; but from this nearest 
point the coast-line recedes gTadually, in dim and 
dimmer distance, to Cape Ann, in Massachusetts, 
twenty-one miles away at the southwest, and to 
Cape Neddock, in Maine, sixteen miles distant in 
the northeast (in clear weather another cape is 
faintly distinguishable beyond this), and about one 
third of the great horizon is filled by this beau- 
tiful, undulating line of land, which, under the 
touch of atmospheric change, is almost as plastic 
as the clouds, and wears a new aspect with every 
turn of wind and weather. 

Sailing out from Portsmouth Harbor with a fair 
wind from the northwest, the Isles of Shoals lie 
straight before you, nine miles away, — ill-defined 
and cloudy shapes, faintly discernible in the dis- 
tance. A word about the origin of this name, 
" Isles of Shoals." They are supposed to have 
been so called, not because the ragged reefs run 
out beneath 'the water in all directions, ready to 
-wreck and destroy, but because of the " shoaling," 
or " schooling," of fish about them, which, in the 
mackerel and herring seasons, is remarkable. As 
you approach they separate, and show each its own 
peculiar characteristics, and you perceive that 
there are six islands if the tide is low ; but if it is 
1* 



10 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

high, there are eight, and would be nine, but that 
a breakwater connects two of them. Api^ledore, 
called for many 3'ears Hog Island, from its rude 
resemblance to a hog's back rising from the water, 
■when seen from out at sea, is the largest and most 
regular in shape. From afar^ it looks smoothly 
rounded, like a gradually sloping elevation, the 
greatest height of which is only seventy-fire feet 
above high-water mark. A little valley in which 
are situated the buildings belonging to the house 
of entertainment, which is the only habitation, 
divides its four hundred acres into two unequal 
portions. Next, almost within a stone's throw, is 
Haley's Island, or "Smutty-nose," so christened 
by passing sailors, with a gi'ira sense of humor, 
from a long black point of rock stretching out to 
the southeast, upon which many a ship has laid 
her bones. This island is low and flat, and con- 
tains a greater depth of soil than the others. At 
low tide. Cedar and Malaga are both connected 
with it, — the latter permanently by a breakwater, 
— the whole comprising about one hundred acres. 
Star Island contains one hundred and fifty acres, 
and lies a quarter of a mile southwest of Smutty- 
nose. Toward its northern end are clustered the 
houses of the little village of Gosport, with a tiny 
church crowning the highest rock. Not quite a 



AMONG TEE ISLES OF SHOALS. H 

mile southwest from Star, White Island lifts a 
lighthouse for a warning. This is the most pic- 
turesque of the group, and forms, with^Seavey's 
Island, at low water, a double island, with an area 
of some twenty acres. Most westerly lies Lon- 
doner's, an irregular rock with a bit of beach, upon 
w-hich all the shells about- the cluster seem to be 
thrown. Two miles northeast from Appledore, 
Duck Island thrusts out its lurking ledges on all 
sides beneath the w^ater, one of them running half 
a mile to the northwest. This is the most dan- 
gerous of the islands, and, being the most remote, 
is the only one visited to any great degree by the 
shy sea-fowl that are nearly banished by civiliza- 
tion. Yet even now, at low tide, those long black 
ledges are often whitened by the dazzling plumage 
of gulls whose exquisite and stainless purity rivals 
the new-fallen snow. The ledges run toward the 
west and north ; but at the east and south the 
shore is bolder, and Shag and Mingo Rocks, where, 
during or after storms, the sea breaks with mag- 
nificent effect, lie isolated by a narrow channel 
from the main granite fragment. A very round 
rock west of Londoner's, perversely called "Square," 
and Anderson's Rock, off the southeast end of 
Smutty-nose, comj^lete the catalogue. 

Smutty-nose and Appledore are almost united 



12 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

by a reef, bare at low tide, though a large vessel 
can pass between them even then. Off the land- 
ing at WJiite Island the Devil's Rock rolls an in- 
cessant breaker, and makes an attempt to reach 
the shore perilous in any but the serenest weather. 
Between Londoner's and Star is another, hardly 
bare at low tide; a perpetual danger, for it lies 
directly in the path of most of the sailing vessels, 
and many a schooner has been "brought up all 
standing " by this unexpected obstacle. Another 
rock, about four miles east of Appledore, rejoices 
in the significant title of the "Old Harry." Old 
Harry is deeply sunk beneath the surface, and 
never betrays himself except in great storms, when 
an awful white spray rises afar off, and the Slioal- 
ers know how tremendous are the breakers that 
send it skyward. 

The names of the towns, Appledore, Gosport, 
and, along the coast, Portsmouth, Newcastle, Rye, 
Ipswich, Portland, Bangor, Newbury, Amesbury, 
Salisbury, and many more, are all borrowed from 
towns on, or not far from, the coasts of England 
and Wales, as may be seen from the maps of those 
countries. Salisbury Beach fronts our islands. 
Amesbury lies farther inland, but the gentle out- 
line of Po Hill, in that town, is the last eminence 
of any importance on the southern end of the 
coast line. 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 13 

The dividing line between Maine and New- 
Hampshire passes through the group, giving Apple- 
dore, Smutty-nose, and Duck Islands to Maine, and 
the rest to New Hampshire ; but their allegiance to 
either is a matter of small importance, the few 
inhabitants troubling themselves but little about 
what State they belong to. Till within a few 
years no taxes were required of them, and they 
enjoyed immunity from this and various other 
earthly ills as completely as the gulls and loons 
that shared their dwelling-place. 

Swept by every wind that blows, and beaten 
by the bitter brine for unknown ages, well may 
the Isles of Shoals be barren, bleak, and bare. At 
first sight nothing can be more rough and inhos- 
pitable than they appear. The incessant influences 
of wind and sun, rain, snow, frost, and spray, have 
so bleached the tops of the rocks, that they look 
hoary as if with age, though in the summer-time 
a gracious greenness of vegetation breaks here and 
there the stern outlines, and softens somewhat 
their rugged aspect. Yet so forbidding are their 
shores, it seems scarcely worth while to land upon 
them, — mere heaps of tumbling granite in the 
wide and lonely sea, — when all the smiling, '^ sap- 
phire-spangled marriage-ring of the land" lies 
ready to woo the voyager back again, and welcome 



14 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

his returning prow with pleasant sights and sounds 
and scents that the wild wastes of water never 
know. But to the human creature who has eyes 
that will see and ears that will hear, nature ap- 
peals with such a novel charm, that the luxurious 
beauty of the land is half forgotten before one is 
aware. Its sweet gardens, full of color and per- 
fume, its rich woods and softly swelling hills, its 
placid waters, and fields and flowery meadows, are 
no longer dear and desirable ; for the wonderful 
sound of the sea dulls the memory of all past im- 
pressions, and seems tofulfil and satisfy all present 
needs. Landing for the first time, the stranger is 
struck only by the sadness of the place, — the vast 
loneliness ; for there are not even trees to whisper 
with familiar voices, — nothing but sky and sea 
and rocks. But the very wildness and desolation 
reveal a strange beauty to him. Let him wait till 
evening comes, 

. ''With sunset purple soothing all the waste," 

and he will find himself slowly succumbing to the 
subtile charm of that sea atmosphere. He sleeps 
with all the waves of the Atlantic murmuring in 
his ears, and wakes to the freshness of a summer 
morning ; and it seems as if morning were made for 
the first time. For the world is like a new-blown 



AMOXG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 15 

rose, and in the heart of it he stands, with only 
the caressing music of the water to break the utter 
silence, unless, perhaps, a song-sparrow pours out 
its blissful warble like an embodied joy. The sea 
is rosy, and the sky ; the line of land is radiant ; 
the scattered sails glow with the delicious color 
that touches so tenderly the bare, bleak rocks. 
These are lovelier than sky or sea or distant sails, 
or graceful gulls' wings reddened with the dawn ; 
nothing takes color so beautifully as the bleached- 
granite ; the shadows are delicate, and the fine, 
hard outlines are glorified and softened beneath 
the fresh first blush of sunrise. All things are 
speckless and spotless ; there is no dust, no noise, 
nothing but peace in the sweet air and on the 
quiet sea. The day goes on ; the rose changes to 
mellow gold, the gold to clear, white daylight, and 
the sea is sparkling again. A breeze ripples the 
surface, and wherever it touches the color deepens. 
A seine-boat passes, with the tawny net heaped in 
the stern, and the scarlet shirts of the rowers bril- 
liant against the blue. Pleasantly their voices 
come across the w^ater, breaking the stillness. The 
fishing-boats steal to and fro, silent, with glittering 
sails ; the gulls wheel lazily ; the far-off coasters 
glide rapidly along the horizon ; the mirage steals 
down the coast-line, and seems to remove it leagues 



16 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

SiVfSij. And what if it were to slip down the 
slope of the world and disappear entirely 1 You 
think, in a half-dream, you would not care. Many 
troubles, cares, perplexities, vexations, lurk behind 
that far, faint line for you. Why should you be 
bothered any more 1 

" Let us alone. Time driveth onwai-d fast, 
And in a little Avhile our lips are dumb," 

And so the waves, with their lulling murmur, do 
their work, and you are soothed into repose and 
transient forgetfulness. 

The natives, or persons who have been brought 
up here, find it almost as difficult to tear them- 
selves away from the islands as do the Swiss to 
leave their mountains. From a civilized race's 
point of view, this is a curious instance of human 
perversity, since it is not good for men to live their 
whole lives through in such remote and solitary 
places. Nobody hears of people dying of home- 
sickness for New York, or Albany, or Maine, or 
California, or any place on the broad continent ; 
but to wild and lonely spots like these isles hu- 
manity clings with an intense and abiding affection. 
No other place is able to furnish the inhabitants 
of the Shoals with sufficient air for their capacious 
lungs ; there is never scope enough elsewhere, 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 17 

there is no horizon ; they must have sea-room. 
On shore it is to them as if all the trees and houses 
crowded against the windows to suffocation ; and I 
know a youth who, when at the age of thirteen he 
made his first visit to the mainland, descended to 
the cellar of the house in which he found himself, 
in the not over-populous city of Portsmouth, and 
spent the fe^V hours of his stay sitting dejectedly 
upon a w^ood-pile, in mute protest against the con- 
dition of things in general, and the pressure of 
human society in particular. 

Each island has its peculiar characteristics, as I 
said before, and no two are alike, though all are of 
the same coarse granite, mixed w^ith masses and 
seams of quartz and felspar and gneiss and mica- 
slate, and interspersed with dikes of trap running 
in all directions. Upon Appledore, for the most 
part, the trap runs from north to south, while 
the veins of quartz and felspar run from east to 
west. Sometimes the narrow white quartz veins 
intersect the dark trap, in parallel lines, now wa- 
vering, and now perfectly straight, and showing a 
surface like that of some vast piece of inlaid work. 
Each island presents its boldest shore to the east, 
to breast the w^hole force of the great Atlantic, 
which every year assails the iron cliffs and head- 
lands with the same ponderous fury, yet leaves 



18 AMOXG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

upon them so little trace of its immense power, — • 
though at White Island, on the top of a precipi- 
tous rock called "The Head," which is nearly fifty- 
feet high, lies a bowlder v/eighing fifteen tons, 
tossed there from below by the breakers. The 
shores arc seldom very bold, but on the east they 
are often very striking with their rifts and chasms, 
and roughly piled gorges, and square quarries of 
stone, and stairways cut as if by human hands. 
The trap rock, softer than the granite, is worn 
away in many places, leaving bare perpendicular 
walls fifteen or twenty feet high. The largest trap 
dike upon Appledore runs across the island from 
northeast to southwest, disappears in the sea, and 
reappears upon Smutty-nose, a quarter of a mile 
distant in a straight line. In some places, the ge- 
ologist will tell you, certain deep scratches in the 
solid rock mean that here the glacier ground its 
way across in the world's earlier ages. Frequently 
the trap rock is honeycombed in a curious fashion, 
— filled with small holes on the surface, as if drops 
of water falling for years in the same spots had 
worn these smooth round hollows. This always 
happens close to the water, and only in the trap 
rock, and looks as if it might be the result of the 
flying spray which, in winter and toward spring, 
when the northwest gales blow sometimes for three 




Trap Dike, Appledore. 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 19 

weeks steadily day and night, beats continually 
upon the shore. 

The coast-line varies, of course, with high or 
low tide. At low water the shores are much more 
forbidding than at high tide, for a broad band of 
dark sea-weed girdles each island, and gives a sul- 
len aspect to the whole group. But in calm days, 
when the moon is full and the tides are so low 
that it sometimes seems as if the sea were being- 
drained away on purpose to show to eager eyes 
what lies beneath the lowest ebb, banks of golden- 
green and brown moss thickly clustered on the 
moist ledges are exposed, and the water is cut 
by the ruffled edges- of the kelps that grow in 
brown and shining forests on every side. At sun- 
rise or sunset the effect of the long rays slantin;.*; 
across these masses of rich color is very beautiful. 
But at high tide the shores are most charming ; 
every little cove and inlet is filled with the music 
of the waves, and their life, light, color, and spar- 
kle. Who shall describe that wonderful noise of 
the sea among the rocks, to me the most sug- 
gestive of all the sounds in nature 1 Each island, 
every isolated rock, has its own peculiar rote, and 
ears made delicate by listening, in great and fre- 
quent peril, can distinguish the bearings of each 
in a dense fog. The threatening speech of Duck 



20 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

Island's ledges, the swing of the wave over Half- 
way Rock, the touch of the ripples on the beach 
at Londoner's, the long and lazy breaker that is 
forever rolling below the lighthouse at White 
Island, — all are familiar and distinct, and indicate 
to the islander his whereabouts almost as clearly 
as if the sun shone brightly and no shrouding 
mist were striving to mock and to mislead him. 

There are no beaches of any considerable size 
along the circle of these shores, and except in two 
narrow fissures, one on Malaga and one on Star, 
only a few feet wide at their widest, there is no 
fine, clean sand, such as lies sparkling on the coast 
at Rye, opposite, and shows, faintly glimmering, 
white in the far distance. The dock at Smutty- 
nose is filled with coarse sand and mud, like the 
little basin of the " Upper Cove " on Appledore ; 
and the largest beach on Star, of the same charac- 
ter, is covered with a stratum of fish-bones several 
feet deep, — by no means a pleasantly fragrant 
pavement. Roiighly rounded pebbles, not beauti- 
ful with warmth of color like those on the Cohasset 
beaches, but a cold, hard combination of gray gran- 
ite and dark trap, are heaped in the coves. In- 
dian arrowheads of jasper and flint have been 
found among them. Now and then a smoother 
bit consists of a coarse gravel, which, if you ex- 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 21 

amine, you will find to be principally composed of 
shells ground fine by the waves, a fascinating mix- 
ture of blue and purple mussels, lined with the 
rainbow tints of mother-of-pearl, and fragments of 
golden and ruddy snail-shells, and striped and col- 
ored cockles ; with here and there a piece of trans- 
parent quartz, white or rosy, or of opaque felspar, 
faintly straw-colored, or of dull-purple porphyry 
stone, all clean and moist with the odorous brine. 
Upon Appledore and the little islets undevastated 
by civilization these tiny coves are the most de- 
lightful places in the world, lovely with their fringe 
of weeds, thistles, and mullein-stalks drawn clearly 
against the sky at the upper edge of the slope, 
and below^, their mosaic of stone and shell and 
sea-wTack, tangles of kelp and driftwood, — a mass 
of warm neutral tints, — with brown, green, and 
crimson mosses, and a few golden snail-shells lying 
on the many-tinted gravel, where the indolent 
ripples lapse in delicious murmurs. There are few 
shells more delicate than the variegated snails and 
cockles and stout whelks that sparsely strew the 
beaches, but these few are exceedingly beautiful, 
and more precious from their rarity. Two kinds 
of pure white spiral shells, not quite an inch long, 
are occasionally found, and cause one to wonder 
how they can be rolled together with the heavy 
pebbles by the breakers and not be annihilated. 



22 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

' After the dark blue miissel-sliells have hiin long 
on shore in sun and rain, they take a curious satin 
sheen, lovely to behold, and the larger kind, shed- 
ding their coat of brown varnish, are colored like 
the eastern sky in clear winter sunsets, a rosy pur- 
ple, with pearly linings streaked with iridescent 
hues. The driftwood is always full of suggestions : 
— a broken oar ; a bit of spar w^ith a ragged end 
of rope-yarn attached ; a section of a mast hur- 
riedly chopped, telling of a tragedy too well known 
on the awful sea; a water-worn buoy, or flakes 
of rich brown bark, which have been peacefully 
floated down the rivers of Maine and cut on the 
wide sea, to land at last here and gladden firesides 
so remote from the deep green wood where they 
grew ; pine-cones, with their spicy fragrance yet 
lingering about them ; apples, green spruce twigs, 
a shingle, with some carpenter's half-obliterated, 
calculations pencilled upon it ; a child's roughly 
carved boat; drowned butterflies, beetles, birds; 
dead boughs of ragged fir-trees completely draped 
with the long, shining ribbon-grass that grows in 
brackish water near river mouths. The last, after 
lying awhile in the wind and sun, present a weird 
appearance, for the narrow ribbons are dried and 
bleached as white as chalk, and shiver and shud- 
der with every wind that blows. It used to be a 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 23 

great delight to hold such a bough aloft, and watch 
all the long, delicate pennons and streamers fly 
trembling out on the breeze. Beyond high-water 
mark all things in the course of time take a uni- 
form gray color from the weather ; wood, shells, 
stones, deposited by some great tide or storm, and 
left undisturbed for months, chocolate-colored bark 
and yellow shingle and gray stone are not to be 
distinguished one from another, except by their 
shape. Of course all white things grow whiter, 
and shells already colorless become as pure as 
snow. Sometimes the slabs and blocks of wood 
that float ashore have drifted so long that they are 
water-logged, and covered with a rich growth of 
mosses, barnacles, and wondrous sea-creatures. 
Sometimes they are completely riddled by the 
j^holas, and the hardest shells are pierced smoothly 
through and through by these soft worms. 

But as a child I was never without apprehen- 
sion when examining the drift, for I feared to find 
some too* dreadful token of disaster. After the 
steamer Bohemian was wrecked (off* Halifax, I 
think) a few years ago, bales of her costly cargo 
of silks and rich stuffs and pieces of the wreck 
w^ere strewn along the coast even to Cape Ann; 
and upon Rye Beach, among other things, two 
boots came on shore. They were not mates, and 



24 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

each contained a human foot. That must have 
been a grewsome discovery to him who picked them 
up. 

There are not many of these quiet coves. In 
general a confusion reigns as if an earthquake had 
rent and spHt the coasts, and tumbled the masses 
in chaotic heaps. On Appledore and the larger 
islands the interior is rather smoother, though no- 
where will you find many rods of plain w^alking. 
Slopes of greenness alternate with the long white 
ledges, and here and there are bits of swampy 
ground and little valleys where the turf is short, 
and the sheep love to browse, and the mushrooms 
grow in August and September. There are no 
trees except, perhaps, a few balm-of-gilead trees 
on Star and a small elm on Appledore, which has 
been struggling with the bleakness of the situation 
some twenty years. It is very probable that the 
islands were wooded many years ago with spruce 
and pine perhaps, — a rugged growth. I am certain 
that cedars grew there, for I found on the highest 
part of Smutty-nose Point, deep down in a crevice 
in the rocks, apiece of a root of cedar-wood, which, 
though perfectly preserved, bore marks of great 
age, being worn as smooth as glass with the rain- 
drops that had penetrated to its hiding-place. 
There are a few bushes, browsed down by the 



A3I0NG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 25 

sheep, with maple, poplar, and birch leaves ; and 
I have seen the crumbling remains of the stump 
of some large tree in the principal gorge or valley 
at Appledore. The oldest inhabitants remember 
quite an orchard on Smutty-nose. In the follow- 
ing note (for which I am indebted to Mr. T. B. 
Fox) from " Christopher Leavitt's Voyage into New 
England" in the year 1623, it appears that there 
were trees, though not of the kind the voyagers 
wished to see. He says : " The first place I set my 
foot upon in New England was the Isles of 
Shoulds. We could see not one good timber tree, 
or so much good ground as to make a garden. 
Good fishing-place for six ships," he goes on to say, 
" not more for want of good storage rooms. Har- 
bor indifferent good. No savages at all." That 
was two hundred and forty-six years ago. In the 
Kev. Jedediah Morse's journal of a mission to the 
Shoals in August, 1800, he says, referring to the 
wretched state of the inhabitants of Star Island at 
that time, " All the trees, and the bushes even, 
have been consumed, and they have cut up, dried, 
and burned many acres of the sward, leaving only 
naked rocks where formerly there was the finest 
pasturage for cows." The bushes have never 
grown again on Star ; but Appledore, wherever 
there is soil enough to hold a root, is overgrown 
2 



26 AJfOXG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

with hucklcbeiTv and bayberry bushes, the glossy 
green leaves of the latter 3'ielding a wholesome, 
aromatic fragrance, which accords well with the 
fresh and healthy sea-odors. Blackberry, raspberry, 
wild currant, and gooseberry bushes also flourish ; 
there are clumps of elder and sumach, woodbine 
and the poison ivy, shrubs of w^ld-cherry and 
shadbush, and even one little wild apple-tree that 
yearly bears a few large, bright blossoms. 

It is curious to note the varieties of plants, wild- 
flowers, and grasses on this island alone. There 
are six different ferns, and many delicate flowers 
bloom in the spring, whose faces it is a continual 
surprise to find looking up at you from the rough 
ground, among the rocks. Every flower seems 
twice as beautiful under these circumstances ; and it 
is a fact that tlie salt air and a peculiar richness in 
the soil give a luxuriance of growth and a depth of 
color not found elsewhere. "Is that willow- 
weed" (or whatever it may be)? "I never saw 
any so bright I " is a remark often heard from 
strangers visiting the islands for the first time. 
The pale-pink herb-robert, for instance, blushes 
with a tint almost as deep as a damask rose, and 
as for the wild-ix)ses, I heard some one say they 
were as " bright as red carnations." In the spring- 
the anemones are stained with purple and pink 



AMOXG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 27 

and yellow in a way that makes their sisters of 
the mainland seem pallid beside them ; and the 
violets are wonderful, — the blue ones so large 
and dark, and the delicately-veined white ones rich 
with creamy fragrance. 

The calyx of the shadbush-flower is dyed with 
purple, almost crimson, and the color runs into 
the milky whiteness of the petals. The little 
pimpernel (when it has anything but salt gravel to 
grow in, for it runs fairly into the sea) is clear 
vermilion, and the pearly eyebright is violet on 
the edges ; the shy celandine glows golden in its 
shady clefts, and the spotted jewel-weed is as rich 
and splendid as a flower in Doctor Rappacini's fa- 
mous garden. Sometimes it is as if the order of 
nature were set aside in this spot ; for you find the 
eyebright and pimpernel and white violets grow- 
ing side by side nntil the frost comes in Novem- 
ber ; often October passes with no sign of frost, 
and the, autunni lingers later than elsewhere. I 
have even seen the iris and wild-rose and golden-rod 
and aster in blossom together, as if, not having 
the example of the world before their eyes, they 
followed their own sweet will, and bloomed when 
they took the fancy. As for garden flowers, when 
you plant them in this soil they fairly run mad 
with color. People say, "Do give me some seeds 



28 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

of these wonderful flowers " ; and they sow them 
in their gardens on the mainland, and they come 
up decorous, commonplace, and pale, like their sis- 
ters in the same soil. The little spot of earth on 
which they grow at the island is like a mass of 
jewels. Who shall describe the pansies, richly 
streaked with burning gold ; the dark velvet core- 
opsis and the nasturtium ; the larkspurs, blue and 
brilliant as lapis-lazuli ; the "ardent marigolds," 
that flame like mimic suns 1 The sweet-peas are 
of a deep, bright rose-color, and their odor is li-ke 
rich wine, too sweet almost to be borne, except 
when the pure fragrance of mignonette is added, 
— such mignonette as never grows on shore. 
Why should the poppies blaze in such imperial 
scarlet % What quality is hidden in this thin soil, 
which so transfigures all the fomiliar flowers with 
fresh beauty 1 I have heard it said that it is the 
cruml)lcd rock which so enriches the earth, but I 
do not know. 

If a flock of sheep and various cows did not 
browse over Appledore incessantly, it would be a 
little wilderness of wild-flowers in the summer; 
they love the soil and climate, and put forth all 
their strength and loveliness. And every year or 
two a new^ kind appears, of which the seed has 
been brought by some bird, or, perhaps, shaken 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 29 

out of a bundle of hay. Last summei', for the 
first time, I found the purple polygala growing in 
a meadowy piece of turf on the south side of the 
island. Columbines and the fragrant ground-nut, 
helianthus, and various other plants, grow only on 
Duck Island; and it is singular that the little po- 
tentilla, ^vhich I am told grows elsewhere only on 
mountain-sides, is found here on all the islands. 
At Smutty-nose alone certain plants of the w^icked- 
looking henbane ( Hyoscyam-us niger) flourish, and, 
on Londoner s only, there spreads at the top of 
the beach a large sea-lungwort (Mertensia mari- 
tima). At Star the crooked little ways between 
the houses are lined with tall plants of the pois- 
onous hemlock (the Conium that made the death- 
draught of Socrates), which flourishes amain, and 
is the only green thing out of the small walled en- 
closures, except the grass and the burdocks ; for 
the cows and the children devastate the ground. 

Appledore is altogether the most agreeable in 
its aspect of all the islands, being the largest, and 
■having a greater variety of snrfece than the rest. 
Its southern portion is full of interest, from the 
traces of vanished humanity which one beholds at 
every step ; for the ground in some places is un- 
dermined with ancient graves, and the ruined cel- 
lars of houses wherein men and women lived more 



30 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

than a century ago are scattered here and there 
to the number of seventy and more. The men and 
women are dust and ashes ; but here are the stones 
they squared and laid ; here are the thresholds 
over which so many feet have passed. The pale 
•green and lilac and golden lichens have overgrown 
and effaced all traces of their footsteps on the door- 
stones ; but here they passed in and out, — old and 
yoimg, little feet of children, heavy tramp of stal- 
w^art fishermen, lighter tread of women, painful and 
uncertain steps of age. Pleasant it is to think of 
the brown and swarthy fisherman, the father, stand- 
ing on such a threshold, and with the keen glance 
all seafaring men possess sweeping the w^ide hori- 
zon for signs of fair or foul weather; or the 
mother, sitting in the sun on the step, nursing 
her baby, perhaps, or mending a net, or spinning, 
— for the women here were famous spinners, and 
on Star Island yet are women who have not for- 
gotten the art. Pleasanter still to think of some 
slender girl at twilight lingering with reluctant 
feet, and wistful eyes that search the dusky sea for 
a returning sail whose glimmer is sweeter than 
moonlight or starlight to her sight, — lingering 
still, though her mother calls within and the dew 
falls with the falling night. I love to people these 
solitudes again, and think that those who lived 



AMO.YG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 31 

here centuries ago were decent, God-fearing folk, 
most of them, — for so tradition says;* though 
in later years they fell into evil ways, and drank 
"fire-water," and came to grief. And all the pic- 
tures over which I dream are set in this framework 
of the sea, that sparkled and sang, or frowned and 
threatened, in the ages that are gone as it does 
to-day, and will continue to smile and threaten 
when we who listen to it and love it and fear it 
now are dust and ashes in our turn. 

Some of the cellars are double, as if two fami- 
lies had built together ; some are distinctly marked ; 
in others the stones have partly Mien in ; all are 
more or less overgrown with lichens, and thick, 
short turf creeps everywhere in and about them. 
Sometimes garlands of woodbine drape the 
walls, and poison-ivy clasps and knots itself about 
the rocks ; clumps of sweet flowering-elder cluster 
in the corners, or graceful, stag-horned sumachs, 
or raspberry bushes with ruddy fruit. Wild 
spiked thistles spread, and tall mullein-stalks 
stand like sentinels on guard over the desolation. 
Beautiful it is to see the delicate herb-robert's rosy 

*" The character and habits of the orighial settlers for in- 
dustry, inteUigence, and pure morals have acquired for them 
great respect in the estimation of posterity." — Williamson's 
History of Maine. 



32 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

flowers among the rough heaps of rocks, hke a 
tender afterthought where all is hard and stern. 

It is a part of the religious belief of the Shoal- 
ers, that the ruinous cairn on the summit of Ap- 
jDledore was built by the famous John Smith and 
his men when they discovered the islands in the 
year 1614; and I will not be so heretical as to 
doubt the fact, though it seems just as likely that 
it was set up by fishermen and sailors as a land- 
mark. At any rate, nobody knows when it was 
not there, and it is perfectly safe to imagine any 
origin for it. I never could be precisely certain 
of the site of the first meeting-house on this isl- 
and, " built (of brick) at a very early period, pos- 
sibly the first in the province," says Williamson in 
his " History of Maine." Probably there was no 
cellar beneath it, and the slight underpinning has 
been scattered and obliterated by time, — a fate 
which many of the houses must have shared in like 
manner. When man has vanished, Nature strives 
to restore her original order of things, and she 
smooths away gradually all traces of his work with 
the broad hands of her changing seasons. The 
men who built the Pyramids felt this ; but will not 
the w^orld spin long enough to level their masonry 
with the desolate sands 1 Neither is there any 
sign of the foundation of that "Academy" to 



AMOXG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 33 

which "even gentlemen from some of the princi- 
pal towns on the sea-coast sent their sons for lit- 
erary instrnction, " — I quote again from William- 
son. How like a dream it seems, looking now at 
these deserted rocks, that so much happened here 
in the years that are gone ! The connection of 
Spain with these islands always had a great fasci- 
nation for me ; it is curious that the brightest and 
gayest of lands, all aglow with sunshine and so 
rich with southern beaut}^, should be in any way 
linked with this place, so remote and desolate. 
" In 1730, and afterwards, three or four ships used 
to load at the Shoals with winter and spring mer- 
chantable fish for Bilboa in Spain." What won- 
drous craft must have navigated these waters, — 
lazy, lumbering old ships, with quaintly carved fig- 
ure-heads, and high-peaked sterns and prows, and 
heavy draperies of weather-beaten sails, pictur- 
esque and charming to behold, and well enough 
for the sparkling Mediterranean, but not the sort 
of build to battle with the Atlantic breakers, as 
several wrecks of vessels caught in the terrible 
gales and driven upon the pitiless ledges might 
testify ! The ship Sagunto, it is said, met her de- 
struction here as late as the year 1813 ; and there 
are faint echoes of other disasters of the kind, but 
the names of other ships have not come down to 
2* c 



34 AMONG TUB ISLES OF SHOALS. 

US. One wrecked on Ap23ledore left onl}^ a quan- 
tity of broad silver pieces sprinkled about the 
rocks to tell of the calamity. A fisherman from 
Star, paddling over in his dory to explore the coves 
and chasms for driftwood (for the island ^vas unin- 
habited at the time), came suddenly upon the 
glittering coins. His amazement was boundless. 
After filling his pockets, a sudden terror jDossessed 
him ; he began to have a suspicion that something 
uncanny lurked at the bottom of such good for- 
tune (for the superstition of the natives is very 
great), and fled home to tell his neighbors, who 
came in a body and made short work of the process 
of gathering the rest of the treasure. Occasion- 
ally, since that time, coins have been found about 
the southeast point, whereon the unknown vessel 
struck and was completely destroyed. Of course 
Captain Kidd, " as he sailed," is supposed to have 
made the locality one of his many hiding-places. 
I remember being awed when a child at the story 
of how a certain old black Dinah, an inhabitant 
of Portsmouth, came out to Appledore, then en- 
tirely divested of human abodes, and alone, with 
only a divining-rod for company, passed several 
days and nights wandering over the island, mut- 
tering to herself, with her divining-rod carefully 
balanced in her skinny hands. Robert Kidd's 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 35 

buried treasure, if it existed, never signalled from 
below to that mystic rod, and the old negress re- 
turned empty-handed ; but what a picture she 
must have made wandering thei'e in the loneliness, 
by sunlight, or moonlight, or starlight, with her 
weird figure, her dark face, her garments flutter- 
ing in the wind, and tlie awfid rod in her hand ! 

On Star Island, I have been told, a little three- 
legged black pot full of gold and silver pieces was 
dug up not very many years ago ; and it is cer- 
tainly true that Mr. Samuel Haley, who lived upon 
and owned Smutty-nose, in building a wall, turned 
over a large, flat stone beneath which lay four bars 
of solid silver. He must have been a fine, ener- 
getic old fellow, that Samuel Haley. With this 
treasure, says tradition again, he built, at great 
trouble and expense, the sea-wall which connects 
Smutty-nose with Malaga, and makes a safe har- 
bor for distressed mariners in stormy weather. 
(This name Malaga, by the way, is a very distinct 
token of the Spaniards.) Not only did Haley 
build the sea-wall, but he erected salt-works which 
"manufactured excellent salt for the curing of 
fish," and stretched a rbpewalk over the uneven 
ground to the extent of two hundred and seventy 
feet, and set up windmills to catch with their 
wide wings all the winds that blew, that he might 



36 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

grind his own corn and wheat, and live as indepen- 
dently as possible of his fellow-men ; for that is one 
of the first things a settler on the Isles of Shoals 
finds it necessary to learn. He planted a little 
orchard where the soil was deepest, and w'ith much 
cherishing care contrived to coax his cherry-trees 
into abundant fruitfulness, and in every way made 
the most of the few advantages of the place. The 
old square house which he built upon his island, 
and which still stands, had, long ago, a broad 
balcony running the whole length of the house 
beneath the second-story windows. Tliis being in 
a ruinous condition, I never dared venture out 
upon it ; but a large, square lookout, with a stout 
railing, which he built on the top of the house, 
remained till within a few years ; and I found it a 
charming place to linger in on still days, and watch 
the sk}^ and the sea and the vessels, and the play 
of color over the bright face of the world. Looking 
from that airy station years ago, I used to think 
how many times he had sat there with his spy- 
glass, scanning the horizon and all within it, while 
the wind ruffled his gray hair and the sun shone 
pleasantly across his calm old face. Many years 
of his useful, happy life he lived there, and left 
behind him a beloved and honorable name. His 
descendants, still living upon Star, are among the 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 37 

best people in the village. A young girl bearing 
his name was lately married to one of the 
youthful fishermen. Star Island might well be 
proud of such a girl, so modest and sweet, and 
pretty too, slender and straight, dark-haired, 
brown-eyed, — as picturesque a creature as one 
would wish to see, with a delicate rose in her 
cheek and a clear light of intelligence in her eyes. 
Considering her, and remembering this ancient 
ancestor of hers, I thought she came honestly b}^ 
her gentle, self-reliant expression, and her fine 
bearing, full of unconscious dignity and grace. 
The old man's quaint epitaph speaks of his hu- 
manity in "receiving into his enclosure many a 
poor, distressed seaman and fisherman in distress 
of weather." " In distress of weather ! " One must 
live in such a place fully to comprehend the mean- 
ing of the words. It was his custom every night 
to put in his bedroom window, over the broad 
balcony facing the southeast, a light which 
burned all night, — a little act of though tfulness 
which speaks volumes. I think the lighthouse 
could not have been kindled at that time, but I am 
not sure. There is much uncertainty with regard 
to dates and records of those old times. Mr. 
Haley is said to have died in 1811, but I have 
always heard that he w^as living when the Sagunto 



38 AMONG THE JSLES OF SHOALS. 

was wrecked upon his island, which happened, 
according to the Gosport records, in 1813. This 
is the entry: "Ship Sagunto stranded on Smoti- 
nose Isle Jany 14*^ 1813 Jany 15^^ one man 
found, Jany 16*^ 6 men found 21-7 the Num- 
ber of men yet found Belonging to said ship 
twelve." I am inclined to think the writer made 
a mistake in his date as well as his spelling and 
arithmetic, for it is an accepted tradition that Mr. 
Haley found and buried the dead crew of that 
ship, and I have always heard it spoken of as a 
simple fact. On that stormy January night, runs 
the story, he placed the light as usual in his 
chamber window, and I dare say prayed in his 
good heart tliat no vessel might be wandering near 
this dangerous place, tossed helpless on the raging- 
sea in the thick darkness and bitter cold and blind- 
ing snow. But that night the great ship Sagunto 
drove, crashing, full upon the fatal southeast point, 
in sight of the tiny spark that burned peacefully, 
unwavering, in that quiet chamber. Her costly 
timbers of mahogany and cedar-wood were splin- 
tered on the sharp teeth of those inexorable rocks; 
her cargo of dried fruits and nuts and bales of 
broadcloth and gold and silver, was tossed about 
the shore, and part of her crew were thrown alive 
upon it. Some of them saw the light, and crawled 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 39 

toward it benumbed with cold and spent with 
fatigue and terror. The roaring of the storm 
bore away their fiiint cries of distress ; the old 
man slept on quietly, with his family about him, 
sheltered, safe ; while a stone's-throw from his 
door these sailors strove and agonized to reach 
that friendly light. Two of them gained the stone- 
wall in front of the house, but their ebbing strength 
would not allow them to climb over ; they threw 
themselves upon it, and perished miserably, with 
safety, warmth, and comfort so close at hand ! In 
the morning, when the tumult w^as somewhat 
hushed, and underneath the sullen sky rolled the 
more sullen sea in long, deliberate weaves, the old 
man looked out in the early light across the waste 
of snow, and on the wall lay — something that 
broke the familiar outline, though all was smooth 
with the pure, soft snow. He must put on coat 
and cap, and go and find out what this strange 
thing might be. Ah, that was a sight for his pity- 
ing eyes under the cold and leaden light of that 
unrelenting morning ! He summoned his sons 
and his men. Quickly the alarm was given, and 
there was confusion and excitement as the island- 
ers, hurriedly gathering, tried if it were possible 
yet to save some life amid the wreck. But it was 
too late ; every soul was lost. Fourteen bodies 



40 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

were found at that time, strewn all the w^ay be- 
tween the wall and that southeast point where the 
vessel had gone to pieces. The following summer 
the skeleton of another was discovered among 
some bushes near the shore. The imagination 
lingers over those poor drowned sailors ; strives 
to figure what each man was like, what might 
have been the musical name of each (for all names 
in Spanish should be musical, w^ith a reminiscence 
of flute and guitar in them) ; dwells on the dark- 
olive faces and jet-black hair, the graceful foreign 
dress, — curious short jackets, perhaps, with bits 
of bright embroidery that loving hands had 
worked for them, all stained and tarnished by the 
brine. No doubt some of them wore about their 
necks a cross or amulet, with an image of the 
" Blessed Virgin " or the " Son of God," that so 
they might be saved from just such a fate as 
this ; and maybe some one among these sailor-men 
carried against his heart a lock of hair, dark and 
lustrous before the washing of the cold waves 
dulled the brightness of its beauty. Fourteen 
shallow graves were quarried for the unknown 
dead in the iron earth, and there they lie, with 
him who buried them a little above in the same 
grassy slope. Here is his epitaph : — 



i 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 41 

" In memor}' of IMi' Samuel Haley 

Who died in the year 1811 

Aged 84 

He was a man of great Ingenuity 

Industry Honor and Honesty, true to his 

Country & A man who did A great 

Publik good in Building A 

Dock & Receiving into his 

Enclosure many a poor 

Distressed Seaman & Fisherman 

In distress of Weather " 

A few steps from their resting-place the low wall 
on which the two unfortunates were found frozen 
is falling into ruin. The glossy green leaves of 
the bayberrj-bushes crowd here and there about 
it, in odorous ranks on either side, and sweetly 
the warm blush of the wild-rose glows against its 
cool gray stones. Leaning upon it in summer 
afternoons, when the wind is quiet and there steals 
up a fragrance and fresh murmur from the incom- 
ing tide, when the slowly mellowing light lies tran- 
quil over the placid sea, enriching everything it 
touches with infinite beauty, — waves and rocks 
that kill and destroy, blossoming roses and lonely 
graves, — a wistful sadness colors all one's thoughts. 
Afar off the lazy waters sing and smile about that 
white point, shimmering in the brilliant atmos- 
phere. How peaceful it is ! How innocent and 
unconscious is the whole face of this awfid and 



42 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

beautiful nature ! ' But, listening to the blissful 
murmur of the tide, one can but think with what 
another voice that tide spoke when it ground the 
ship to atoms and roared with sullen thunder 
about those dying men. 

There is no inscription on the rough boulders at 
the head and foot of these graves. A few more 
3"ears, and all trace of them will be obliterated. 
Already the stones lean this way and that, and 
are half buried in the rank grass. Soon will they 
be entirely forgotten ; the old, old world forgets 
so much ! And it is sown thick with graves from 
pole to pole. 

" These islands bore some of the first footprints 
of New-England Christianity and civilization. 
They were for a long time the abode of intelli- 
gence, refinement, and virtue, but were afterwards 
abandoned to a state of semi-barbarism." The 
first intelligence of the place comes to us from 
the j^ear 1614, when John Smith is supposed to 
have discovered them. The next date is of the 
landing of Christopher Leavitt, in 1623. In 1645, 
three brothers, Robert, John, and Richard Cutts, 
emigrated from Wales, and on their way to the 
continent paused at the Isles of Shoals, and, find- 
ing them so pleasant, made their settlement here. 
Williamson mentions particularly Richard Gibson, 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 43 

from Topsham, England, and various other men 
from England and Wales. Many people speedily 
joined the little colony, which grew yearly more 
prosperous. In 1650, the Rev. John Brock came 
to live among the islanders, and remained with 
them twelve years. All that we hear of this man 
is so fine, he is represented as having been so faith- 
ful, zealous, intelligent, and humane, that it is no 
wonder the community flourished while he sat at 
the helm. It was said of him, " He dwells as near 
Heaven as any man upon earth." Cotton Mather 
thus quaintly praises him : " He was a good 
grammarian, chiefly in this, that he still spohe the 
truth from his heart. He was a good logician, 
chiefly in this, that he presented himself unto God 
with a reasonable service. He was a good arith- 
metician, chiefly in this, that he so numbered his 
days as to apply his heart unto loisdom. He was a 
good astronomer, chiefly in this, that his conversa- 
tion was in Heaven So much belonged to 

this good man, that so learned a life may well be 
judged worthy of being a written one." After him 
came a long procession of the clergy, good, bad, 
and indifterent, up to the present time, when 
"divine service," so-called, has seemed a mere 
burlesque as it has been often carried on in the 
little church at Star, 



44 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

Last summer I was shown a quaint little book 
entitled " The Fisherman's Calling. A brief essay 
to Serve the Great Interests of Religion among our 
Fishermen. By Cotton Mather, D. D. Boston in 
New England. Printed : Sold by T. Green. 1712," 
and I found the following incident connected with 
Mr. Brock's ministry at the Shoals : " To Illustrate 
and Demonstrate the Providence of God our Saviour 
over the Business of fishermen, I will entertain you 
with Two short Modern Histories." Then follows 
an account of some Romish priests upon some isles 
belonging to Scotland, wdio endeavored to draw the 
poor fishermen over to popery. The other is this : 
" When our Mr. Brock lived on the Isles of Shoals, 
he brought the Fishermen into an agreement that 
besides the Lord's Day they would spend one day 
of every month together in the worship of the 
Glorious Lord. A certain day which by their 
Agreement belonged unto the Exercises of Religion 
being arrived, they came to Mr. Brock, and asked 
him, that they might put by their meeting and go 
a Fishing, because they had Lost many Days by the 
Foulness of the weather. He, seeing that without 
and against his consent they resolved upon doing 
what they asked of him, rej)lied, ' If you will go 
away I say unto you, ' Catch Fish if you can ! ' 
But as for you that will tarry, and worship our Lord 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 45 

Jesus Christ this day, I will pray unto Him for 
you that you may afterwards take fish till you are 
weary.' Thirty men went away from the meeting 
and Five tarried. The thirty that went away from 
the meeting with all their Craft could catch but 
four Fishes. The Five which tarried wont forth 
afterwards and the?/ took five Hundred. The Fish- 
ermen were after this Readier to hearken unto the 
Voice of their Teacher." 

If virtue were often its own reward after a fash- 
ion like this, in what a well-conducted world we 
should live ! Doubtless the reckless islanders 
needed the force of all the moral suasion good Mr. 
Brock could bring to bear upon them ; too much 
law and order they could not have ; but I like bet- 
ter this story of the stout old fisherman who in 
church so unexpectedly answered his pastor's 
thrilling exhortation, "Supposing, my brethren, 
that any of you should be overtaken in the bay 
by a northeast storm, your hearts trembling with 
fear, and nothing but death before, whither would 
your thoughts turn % what would you do *? " — with 
the instant inspiration of common-sense, " I 'd hoist 
the foresail and scud away for Squam ! " 

The first church on Star was built principally 
of timbers from the wrecks of Spanish ships, but 
it has been partially burned and rebuilt twice. 



46 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

Various rough characters, giveu over to hard driuk- 
ing, and consequently lawless living, have joined 
the colony within the last ten years, and made the 
place the scene of continually recurring fires. On 
going down to Aj)pledore one spring I was sur- 
prised at the daily and nightly jangling of the dull 
bell at Star, — a dissonant sound borne wildly on the 
stormy wind to our dw^elling. " What is Star Isl- 
and ringing fori" I kept asking, and was as often 
answered, " 0, it 's only Sam Blake setting his house 
on fire ! " — the object being to obtain the insur- 
ance thereupon. 

On the Massachusetts records there is a para- 
graph to the effect that, in the year 1653, Philip 
Babb, of Hog Island, was appointed constable for 
all the islands of Shoals, Star Island excepted. 
To Philip Babb we shall have occasion to refer 
again. *'In May, 1661," says Williamson, "being 
places of note and great resort, the General Court 
incorporated the islands into a town called Apple- 
dore, and invested it with the powers and privi- 
leges of other towns." There were then about 
forty families on Hog Island, but between that 
time and the year 1670 these removed to Star Isl- 
and and joined the settlement there. This they 
were induced to do partly through fear of the In- 
dians, who frequented Duck Island, and thence 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 47 

made plundering excursions upon them, carrying 
off their women while they were absent fishing, 
and doing a variety of harm ; but, as it is expressly 
stated that j)eople living on the mainland sent 
their children to school at Appledore that they 
might be safe from the Indians, the statement of 
their dej)redations at the Shoals is perplexing. 
Probably the savages camped on Duck to carry on 
their craft of porpoise-fishing, which to this day 
they still pursue aniong the islands on the eastern 
coast of Maine. Star Island seemed a place of 
greater safety ; and probably the greater advantages 
of landing and the convenience of a wide cove at 
the entrance of the village, with a little harbor 
wherein the fishing-craft might anchor with some 
security, w^ere also inducements. William Pep- 
perell, a native of Cornwall, England, emigrated 
to the place in the year 1676, and lived there up- 
wards of twenty years, and carried on a large fish- 
ery. "He was the father of Sir William Pepperell, 
the most famous man Maine ever produced." For 
more than a century previous to the Revolutionary 
War there were at the Shoals from three to six 
hundred inhabitants, and the little settlement 
flourished steadily. They had their church and 
school-house, and a covu't-house ; and the usual 
municipal officers were annually chosen; and the 



48 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

town records regularly kept. From three to four 
thousand quintals of fish were yearly caught and 
cured by the islanders ; and, beside their trade 
with Spain, large quantities of fish were also car- 
ried to Portsmouth, for the West India market. 
In 1671 the islands belonged to John Mason and 
Sir Ferdinando Gorges. This man always greatly 
interested me. He must have been a person of 
great force of character, strong, clear-headed, fall 
of fire and energy. He was appointed governor- 
general of New England in 1637. Williamson has 
much to say of him : " He and Sir Walter Raleigh, 
whose acquaintance was familiar, possessing minds 
equally elastic and adventurous, turned their 
thoughts at an early period of life towards the 
American hemisphere." And the historian thus 
goes on lamenting over him : " Fame and wealth, 
so often the idols of superior intellects, were the 
prominent objects of this aspiring man. Constant 
and sincere in his friendships, he might have had 
extensively the estimation of others, had not self- 
ishness been the centre of all his efforts. His life 
and name, though by no means free from blem- 
ishes, have just claims to the grateful recollections 
of the Eastern Americans and their posterity." 

From 1640 to 1775, says a report to the "Soci- 
ety for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 49 

and Others in North America," the church at the 
Shoals was in a flourishing condition, and had a 
succession of ministers, — Messrs. Hull, Brock, 
Belcher, Moody, Tucke, and Shaw, all of whom 
were good and faithful men ; two. Brock and 
Tucke, being men of learning and ability, with 
peculiarities of talent and character admirably 
fitting them for their work on these islands. Tucke 
was the only one who closed his life and ministry 
at the Shoals. He was a graduate of Harvard 
College of the class of 1723, was ordained at the 
Shoals July 20, 1732, and died there August 12, 
1 773, — his ministry thus covering more than forty 
years. His salary in 1771 was paid in merchant- 
able fish, a quintal to a man, when there were on 
the Shoals from ninety to one hundred men, and 
a quintal of fish was worth a guinea. His grave 
was accidentally discovered in 1800, and the Hon. 
Dudley Atkins Tyng, who interested himself most 
charitably and indefatigably for the good of these 
islands, placed over it a slab of stone, with an in- 
scription which still remains to tell of the fine 
qualities of the man whose dust it covers ; but 
year by year the raindrops with delicate touches 
wear away the deeply cut letters, for the stone 
lies horizontal ; even now they are scarcely legi- 
ble, and soon the words of praise and appreciation 



50 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

will exist only in the memory of a few of the older 
inhabitants. 

At the time of Mr. Tncke's death the prosper- 
ity of the Shoals was at its height. Bnt in less 
than thirty years after his death a most woful con- 
dition of things was inaugurated. 

The settlement flourished till the breaking out 
of the war, when it was found to be entirely at 
the mercy of the English, and obliged to furnish 
them wdth recruits and supplies. The inhabitants 
were therefore ordered by the government to quit 
the islands; and as their trade was probably 
broken up and their property exposed, most of 
them complied with the order, and settled in the 
neighboring seaport towns, where their descendants 
may be found to this day. Some of the people 
settled in Salem, and the Mr. White so mysteri- 
ously murdered there many years ago was born at 
Appledore. Those who remained, with a few ex- 
ceptions, were among the most ignorant and de- 
graded of the people, and they went rapidly down 
into untold depths of misery. " They burned the 
meeting-house, and gave themselves up to quarrel- 
ling, profanity, and drunkenness, till they became 
almost barbarians "; or, as Mr. Morse expresses it, 
" were given up to work all manner of wickedness 
with greediness." In no place of the size has 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS 51 

there been a greater absorption of " rum " since 
the world was made. Mr. Reuben Moody, a theo- 
logical student, lived at the Shoals for a few 
months in the year 1822, and his description of 
the condition of things at that time is frightful. 
He had no place to open a school ; one of the isl- 
anders provided him with a room, fire, etc., giving 
as a reason for his enthusiastic furtherance of Mr. 
Moody's plans, that his children made such a dis- 
turbance at home that he couldn't sleep in the 
daytime. An extract from Mr. Moody's journal 
affords an idea of the morals of the inhabitants at 
this period : — 

*' May P*. I yet continue to witness the Heav- 
en-daring impieties of this people. Yesterday my 
heart was shocked at seeing a man about seventy 
years of age, as devoid of reason as a maniac, giv- 
ing way to his passions ; striving to express him- 
self in more blasphemous language than he had 
the abihty to utter ; and, beiug unable to express 
the malice of his heart in words, he would run at 
every one he saw. All was tumult and confusion, — ■ 
men and women with tar-brushes, clenched fists, 
and stones ; one female who had an infant but 
eight days old, with a stone in her hand and an 
oath on her tongue, threatened to dash out the 
brains of her antaofonists After I arrived 



52 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

among them some of them dispersed, some led 
their wives into the house, others drove them off, 
and a calm succeeded." 

In another part of the journal is an account of 
an old man who lived alone and drank forty gallons 
of rum in twelve months, — some horrible old Cali- 
ban, no doubt. This hideous madness of drunken- 
ness was the great trouble at the Shoals; and though 
time has modified, it has not eliminated the ap- 
jDarently hereditary bane whose antidote is not yet 
discovered. The misuse of strong drink still proves 
a whirlpool more awful than the worst terrors 
of the pitiless ocean that hems the islanders in. 

As may be seen from Mr. Moody's journal, the 
clergy had a hard time of it among the heathen 
at the Isles of Shoals ; but they persevered, and 
many brave women at different times have gone 
among the people to teach the school and reclaim 
the little children from wretchedness and igno- 
rance. Miss Peabody, of Newburyport, who came 
to live with them in 1823, did wonders for them 
during the three years of her stay. She taught 
the school, visited the families, and on Sundays 
read to such audiences as she could collect, took 
seven of the poorer female children to live with 
her at the parsonage, instructed all who would 
learn in the arts of carding, spinning, weaving, 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 53 

knitting, sewing, braiding mats, etc. Truly she 
remembered what " Satan finds for idle hands to 
do," and kept all her charges busy and conse- 
quently happy. All honor to her memory ! she 
was a wise and faithful servant. There is still an 
affectionate remembrance of her among the pres- 
ent inhabitants, whose mothers she helped out of 
their degradation into a better life. I saw in one 
of the houses, not long ago, a sampler blackened 
by age, but carefully preserved in a frame ; and 
was told that the dead grandmother of the family 
had made it when a little girl, under Miss Pea- 
body's supervision. In 1835 the Rev. Origen 
Smith w^ent to live at Star, and remained perhaps 
ten years, doing much good among the people. 
He nearly succeeded in banishing the great de- 
moralizer, liquor, and restored law and order. He 
is reverently remembered by the islanders. In 
1855 an excellent man by the name of Mason oc- 
cupied the post of minister for the islanders, and 
from his report to the "Society for Propagating 
the Gospel among the Indians and Others in 
North America" I make a few extracts. He 
says : " The kind of business which the people 
pursue, and by which they subsist, affects unfavor- 
ably their habits, physical, social, and religious. 
Family discipline is neglected, domestic arrange- 



54 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

ments very imperfect, much time, apparently 
wasted, is spent in watching for favorable indica- 
tions to pui'sue their calling A bad moral 

influence is excited by a portion of the transient 
visitors to the Shoals during the summer months." 
This is very true. He speaks of the people's ap- 
preciation of the efforts made in their behalf; and 
says that they raised subscriptions among them- 
selves for lighting the parsonage, and for fuel for 
the singing-school (which, by the way, was a most 
excellent institution), and mentions their surprising 
him by putting into the back kitchen of the par- 
sonage a barrel of fine flour, a bucket of sugar, a 
leg of bacon, etc. " Their deep poverty abounded 
unto the riches of their liberality," he says ; and 
this little act shows that they were far from being 
indifferent or ungrateful. They were really at- 
tached to Mr. Mason, and it is a pity he could not 
have remained with them. 

Within the last few years they have been trying 
bravely to help themselves, and they persevere 
with their annual fair to obtain money to pay the 
teacher who saves their little children from utter 
ignorance ; and many of them show a growing- 
ambition in fitting up their houses and making 
their families more comfortable. Of late, the fires 
before referred to, kindled in drunken madness by 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 55 

the islanders themselves, or by the reckless few 
who have joined the settlement, have swept away 
nearly all the old houses, which have been re- 
placed by smart new buildings, painted white, 
with green blinds, and with modern improvements, 
so that yearly the village grows less picturesque, — 
which is a charm one can aftbrd to lose, when the 
external smartness is indicative of better living 
among the people. Twenty years ago Star Island 
Cove was charming, with its tumble-down fish- 
houses, and ancient cottages with low, shelving 
roofs, and porches covered with the golden lichen 
that so loves to embroider old weather-worn wood. 
Now there is not a vestige of those dilapidated 
buildings to be seen ; almost everything is white 
and square and new ; and they have even cleaned 
out the cove, and removed the great accumulation 
of fish-bones which made the beach so curious. 

The old town records are quaint and interest- 
ing, and the spelling and modes of expression so 
peculiar that I have copied a few. Mr. John 
Muchamore was the moderator of a meeting called 
"March ye 7th day, 1748. By a Legall town 
meeting of ye Free holders and Inhabitence of 
gosport, dewly quallefide to vote for Tiding men 
Collers of fish, Corders of wood. Addition to ye 
minister's sallery Mr John Tucke, 100 lbs old 
tenor." 



56 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

In 1755, it was " Agred in town meating that 
if any person shall spelth [split] any fish above hie 
water marck and leave their heads and son bones 
[sound-bones] their, shall pay ten lbs new tenor to 
the town, and any that is above now their, they 
that have them their, shall have them below hie 
warter in fortinets time or pay the same." In 
another place " it is agreed at ton meating evry 
person that is are kow [has a cow^] shall carry 
them of at 15 day of may, keep them their til 
the 15 day of October or pay 20 shillings lawful 
money." And " if any person that have any hogs. 
If they do any damg", hom [whom] they do the 
damg to shall keep the hog for sattisfaxeon." 

The cows seem to have given a great deal of 
trouble. Here is one more extract on the sub- 
ject : — 

" This is a Leagel vot by the ton meeting, that 
if any presson or pressons shall leave their Cowks 
out after the fifteenth day of May and they do 
any Dameg, they shall be taken up and the owner 
of the kow shall pay teen shillings old tenor to 
the kow constabel and one half he shall have and 
the other shall give to the pour of the place. 
" Mr Dainel Kandel 

" Kow ConstabeV* 
"On March 11*^ 1762. A genarel free Voot 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 57 

past amongst the inhabents that every fall of the 
year when Mr Rev'^* John Tucke has his wood to 
Carry home evary men will not com that is abel 
to com shall pay forty shillings ould tenor." 

But the most delightfully preposterous entry is 
this : — 

"March 12*^ 1769. A genarel free voot past 
amongst the inhabents to cus [cause] tow men to 
go to the Rev^ Mr John Tucke to hear wether he 
was willing to take one Quental of fish each man, 
or to take the price of Quental in ould tenor 
which he answered this that he thought it was 
easer to pay the fish than the money which he 
consented to taik the fish for the year insuing." 

"On March ye 25 1771. "then their was a 
meating called and it was gurned until the 23'^'^ 
day of apirel. 

"Mr Deeken Willam Muchmore 

" Moderator.'''' 

Among the "offorsers" of " Gospored " were, 
besides " Moderator " and "Town Clarke," " See- 
lekt meen," "- Counstauble," " Tidon meen" (Tith- 
ing-men), " Coulears of fish," — " Coulear " mean- 
ing, I suppose, culler, or person appointed to 
select fish, — and " Sealers of Whood," oftener 
expressed corders of wood. 
3* 



58 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

In 1845 we read that Asa Caswell was chosen 
highway " so van*." 

Very ancient tradition says that the method of 
courtship at the Isles of Shoals was after this 
fashion : If a youth fell in love with a maid, he 
lay in wait till she passed by, and then pelted 
her with stones, after the manner of our friends 
of Marblehead ; so that if a fair Shoaler found her- 
self the centre of a volley of missiles, siie might 
be sure that an ardent admirer was expressing 
himself with decision certainly, if not with tact ! 
If she turned, and exhibited any curiosity as to the 
point of the compass whence the bombardment 
proceeded, her doubts were dispelled by another 
shower ; but if she went on her way in maiden 
meditation, then was her swain in despair, and life, 
as is usual in such cases, became a burden to him. 

Within my remembrance an occasional cab- 
bage-party made an agreeable variety in the life 
of the villagers. I never saw one, but have heard 
them described. Instead of regaling the guests 
with w^ne and ices, pork and cabbage were the 
principal refreshments offered them ; and if the 
cabbage came out of the garden of a neighbor, 
the spice of wickedness lent zest to the entertain- 
ment, • — stolen fruit being always the sweetest. 

It would seem strange that, while they live in 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 59 

SO healthy a place, where the atmosphere is abso- 
lutely perfect in its purity, they should have suf- 
fered so much from ill health, and that so many 
should have died of consumption, — the very dis- 
ease for the cure of which physicians send invalids 
hither. The reasons are soon told. The first 
and most important is this : that, as nearly as they 
could, they have in past ye^U'S hermetically sealed 
their houses, so that the air of heaven should not 
penetrate within. An open window, especially at 
night, they would have looked upon as madness, — 
a temptation of Providence ; and during the winter 
they have deliberately poisoned themselves with 
every breath, like tw^o thirds of the rest of the 
world. I have seen a little room containing a 
whole family, fishing-boots and all, bed, furniture, 
cooking-stove in full blast, and an oil lamp with a 
v/ick so high that the deadly smoke rose steadily, 
filling the air with what Browning might call 
" filthiest gloom," and mingling with the incense 
of ancient tobacco-pipes smoked by both sexes 
(for nearly all the old women used to smoke) ; 
every crack and cranny was stopped ; and if, by 
any chance, the door opened for an instant, out 
rushed a fume in comparison with W'hich the gusts 
from the lake of Tartarus might be imagined 
sweet. Shut in that deadly air, a part of the 



60 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

family slept, sometimes all. What wonder that 
their chests were hollow^ their faces haggard, and 
that apathy settled upon them ! Then their food 
was hardly selected with reference to health, sal- 
eratus and pork forming two of the principal in- 
gredients in their daily fare. Within a few^ years 
past they have probably improved in these re- 
spects. Fifteen years ago I was passing a window 
one morning, at which a little child two years old 
was sitting, tied into a high chair before a table 
drawn close to the window, eating his breakfast 
alone in his glory. In his stout little fist he 
grasped a large iron spoon, and fed himself from 
a plate of beans swimming in fat, and with the 
pork cut up in squares for his better convenience. 
By the side of the plate stood a tin mug of bitter- 
strong black coffee sweetened with molasses. I 
spoke to his mother within; *' Ar'n't you afraid 
such strong coffee will kill your baby 1 " "0 no," 
she answered, and held it to his lips. " There, 
drink that," she said, "that '11 make you hold 
your head up ! " The poor child died before he 
grew to be a man, and all the family have fallen 
victims to consumption. 

Very few of the old people are left at the pres- 
ent time, and the village is very like other fishing- 
villages along the coast. Most of the peculiar 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 61 

characteristics of the race are lost in the present 
generation of young women, who are addicted to 
the use of hoops and water-falls, and young men, 
who condescend to spoil their good looks by dyeing 
their handsome blond beards with the fashionable 
mixture which inevitably produces a lustre like 
stove-blacking. But there are sensible fellows 
among them, fine specimens of the hardy New 
England fisherman, Saxon-bearded, broad-shoul- 
dered, deep-chested, and bronzed with shade on 
shade of ruddy brown. < The neutral blues and 
grays of the salt-water make perfect backgrounds 
for the pictures these men are continually showing 
one in their life about the boats. Nothing can be 
more satisfactory than the blendings and contrasts 
of color and the picturesque effect of the general 
aspect of the natives in their element. The eye 
is often struck with the richness of the color 
of some rough hand, glowing with mingled red, 
brown, and orange, against the gi-ay-blue water, 
as it grasps an oar, perhaps, or pulls in a rope. It 
is strange that the sun and wind, which give such 
fine tints to the complexions of the lords of crea- 
tion, should leave such hideous traces on the faces 
of women. When they are exposed to the same 
salt wind and clear sunshine they take the hue 
of dried fish, and become objects for men and 



62 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

angels to weep over. To see a bona fide Shoaler 
" sail a boat " (when the cmft is a real boat and 
no tub) is an experience. The vessel obeys his 
hand at the rudder as a trained horse a touch on 
the rein, and seems to bow at the flash of his 
eye, turning on her heel and running up into the 
wind, " luffing " to lean again on the other tack, — 
obedient, graceful, perfectly beautiful, yielding to 
breeze and to billow, yet swayed throughout by a 
stronger and more imperative law. 1 The men be- 
come strongly attached to their boats, which seem 
to have a sort of human interest for them, — and 
no wonder. They lead a life of the greatest hard- 
ship and exposure, during the winter especially, 
setting their trawls fifteen or twenty miles to the 
eastward of the islands, drawing them next day if 
the stormy winds and waves will permit, and tak- 
ing the fish to Portsmouth to sell. It is desper- 
ately hard work, trawling at this season, with the 
bitter wind blowing in their teeth, and the flying 
spray freezing upon everything it touches, — 
boats, masts, sails, decks, clothes completely cased 
in ice, and fish frozen solid as soon as taken from 
the water. The inborn politeness of these fisher- 
men to stranger-women is something delightful to 
witness. I remember once landing in Portsmouth, 
and being obliged to cross three or four schooners 



AMONG TEE ISLES OF SHOALS. 63 

just in (with their freight of frozen fish lying 
open-mouthed in a sohd mass on deck) to reach 
the wharf. No courtly gentlemen could have dis- 
played more beautiful behavior than did these 
rough fellows, all pressing forward, with real grace, 
— because the feeling which prompted them was a 
true and lofty feeling, — to help me over the tangle 
of ropes and sails and anchors to a safe footing on 
shore. There is a ledge forty-five miles east of 
the islands, called Jeffrey's Ledge, where the 
Shoalers go for spring fishing. During a north- 
east storm in May, part of the little fleet came 
reeling in before the gale ; and, not daring to 
trust themselves to beat up into the harbor (a 
poor shelter at best), round the rocky reefs and 
ledges, the fishermen anchored under the lee of 
Appledore, and there rode out the storm. They 
were in continual peril; for, had their cables 
chafed apart with the shock and strain of the bil- 
lows among which they plunged, or had their 
anchors dragged (which might have been expected, 
the bottom of the sea betw^een the islands and 
the mainland being composed of mud, while all 
outside is rough and rocky), they would have in- 
evitably been driven to their destruction on the 
opposite coast. It was not pleasant to watch 
them as the early twilight shut down over the 



64 AMONG TEE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

vast, weltering desolation of the sea, to see the 
slender masts waving helplessly from one side to 
another, — sometimes almost horizontal, as the 
hulls turned heavily this way and that, and the 
long breakers rolled in endless succession against 
them. They saw the lights in our windows a half- 
mile away; and we, in the warm, bright, quiet room, 
sitting by a fire that danced and shone, fed with 
bits of wreck such as they might scatter on Rye 
Beach before morning, could hardly think of any- 
thing else than the misery of those poor fellows, 
w^et, cold, hungry, sleepless, full of anxiety till 
the morning should break and the wind should 
lull. No boat could reach them through the ter- 
rible commotion of waves. But they rode through 
the night in safety, and the morning brought re- 
lief. One brave little schooner " toughed it out " 
on the distant ledge, and her captain told me that 
no one could stand on board of her ; the pressure 
of the wind down on her decks was so great that 
she shuddered from stem to stern, and he feared 
she would shake to pieces, for she was old and not 
very seaworthy. Some of the men had wives and 
children watching them from lighted windows at 
Star. What a fearful night for them ! They could 
not tell from hour to hour, through the thick 
darkness, if yet the cables held ; they could not 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 65 

see till daybreak whether the sea had swallowed 
up their treasures. I wonder the wives were not 
white-haired when the sun rose, and showed them 
those little specks yet rolling in the breakers ! 
The women are excessively timid about the w^ater, 
more so than landswomen. Having the terror and 
might of the ocean continually encircling them, 
they become more impressed with it and distrust 
it, knowing it so well. Very few accidents happen, 
however : the islanders are a cautious people. Years 
ago, when the white sails of their little fleet of 
whale-boats used to flutter out of the sheltered 
bight and stand out to the fishing-grounds in the 
bay, how many eyes followed them in the early 
light, and watched them in the distance through 
the day, till, toward sunset, they spread their wings 
to fly back with the evening wind ! How pathetic 
the gathering of women on the headlands, when 
out of the sky swept the squall that sent the 
small boats staggering before it, and blinded the 
eyes, already drowned in tears, with sudden rain 
that hid sky and sea and boats from their eager 
gaze ! What wringing of hands, what despairing 
cries, w^hich the wild w^nd bore away while it 
ca.ught and fluttered the homely draperies and 
unfastened the locks of maid and mother, to blow 
them about their pale faces and anxious eyes ! 



66 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

Now no longer the little fleet goes forth ; for the 
greater part of the islanders have stout schooners, 
and go trawling with profit, if not with pleasure. 
A few solitaries fish in small dories and earn a 
slender livelihood thereby. 

The sea helps these poor people by bringing 
fuel to their very doors ; the waves continually 
deposit driftwood in every fissure of the rocks. 
But sad, anxious lives they have led, especially 
the women, many of whom have grown old before 
their time with hard work and bitter cares, with 
hewing of wood and drawing of water, turning of 
fish on the flakes to dry in the sun, endless house- 
hold work, and the cares of maternity, while their 
lords lounged about the rocks in their scarlet 
shirts in the sun, or " held up the walls of the 
meeting-house," as one expressed it, with their 
brawny shoulders. I never saw such wrecks of 
humanity as some of the old women of Star 
Island, who have long since gone to their rest. In 
my childhood I caught glimpses of them occa- 
sionally, their lean brown shapes crouching over 
the fire, with black pipes in their sunken mouths, 
and hollow eyes, " of no use now but to gather 
brine," and rough, gray, straggling locks : despoiled 
and hopeless visions, it seemed as if youth and joy 
could never have been theirs. 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 67 

A WOMAN OF STAR ISLAND. 
Isles of Shoals, 1844. 

Over the embers she sits, 

Close at the edge of the grave, 
With her hollow eyes like pits. 

And her mouth like a sunken cave. 

Her shoi't black pipe held tight 

Her withered lips between, 
She rocks in the flickering light 

Her figure bent and lean. 

She turns the fish no more 

That dry on the flakes in the sun ; 
No wood she drags to the door, 

Nor water, — her labor is done. 

She cares not for oath or blow, , 

She is past all hope or fear ; 
There is nothing she cares to know, 

There is nothing hateful or dear. 

Deep wrong have the bitter years 

Wrought her, both body and soul. 
Life has been seasoned with tears; 

But saw not God the whole ? 

wreck in woman's shape! 

Were you ever gracious and sweet ? 
Did youth's enchantment drape 

This horror, from head to feet '? 

Have dewy eyes looked out 

From these hollow pits forlorn ? 
Played smiles the mouth about 

Of shy, still rapture born? 



68 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

Yea, once. But long ago 

Has evil ground away- 
All beauty. The salt winds blow 

On no sorrier sight to-day. 

Trodden utterly out 

Is ever}'- spark of hope. 
There is only left her, a doubt, 

A gesture, half-conscious, a grope 

In the awful dark for a Touch 

That never yet failed a soul. 
Is not God tender to such V 

Hath he not seen the whole V 

The local pronunciation of the Shoalers is very 
peculiar, and a shrewd sense of humor is one of 
their leading characteristics. Could De Quincey 
have lived among them, I think he might have 
been tempted to write an essay on swearing as a 
fine art, for it has reached a pitch hardly short of 
sublimity in this favored spot. They seemed to 
have a genius for it, and some of them really 
devoted their best powders to its cultivation. The 
language was taxed to furnish them with prodigious 
forms of speech wherewith to express the slightest 
emotion of pain, anger, or amusement ; and though 
the blood of the listener was sometimes chilled in 
his veins, overhearing their unhesitating profanity, 
the prevailing sentiment was likely to be one of 
amazement mingled with intense amusement, — 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 69 

the whole thing was so grotesque and monstrous, 
and their choice of words so comical, and gener- 
ally so very much to the point. 

The real Shoals phraseology existing in past 
years was something not to be described ; it is 
impossible by any process known to science to 
convey an idea of the intonations of their speech, 
quite different from Yankee drawl or sailor-talk, 
and perfectly unique in itself. Why they should 
have called a swallow a " swallick " and a sparrow 
a " sparrick " I never could understand ; or what 
they mean by calling a great gale or tempest a 
" Tan toaster." Anything that ends in y or e they 
still pronounce «y with great breadth ; for instance, 
"Benny" is Bennaye ; "Billy" Billay, and so on. 
A man by the name of Beebe, the modern " mis- 
sionary," was always spoken of as Beebay, when 
he was not called by a less respectful title. Their 
sense of fun showed itself in the nicknames with 
which they designated any person possessing the 
slightest peculiarity. For instance, twenty years 
ago a minister of the Methodist persuasion came 
to live among them ; his wife was unreasonably 
tall and thin. With the utmost promptitude and 
decision the irreverent christened her " Legs," and 
never spoke of her by any other name. " Laigs 
has gone to Portsmouth," or " Laigs has got a 



70 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

new gown," etc. A spinster of very dark com- 
plexion was called " Scip," an abbreviation of 
Scipio, a name supposed to appertain particularly 
to the colored race. Another was called " Squint," 
because of a defect in the power of vision ; and 
not only \vere they spoken of b}^ these names, 
but called so to their faces habitually. One man 
earned for himself the title of " Brag," so that 
no one ever thought of calling him by his real 
name; his wife w^as Mrs. Brag; and constant use 
so robbed these names of their offensiveness that 
the bearers not only heard them with equanimity, 
but would hardly have known themselves by their 
true ones. A most worthy Norwegian took up his 
abode for a brief space among them a few years 
ago. His name was Ingebertsen. Now, to expect 
any Shoaler would trouble himself to utter such 
a name as that was beyond all reason. At once 
they called him " Carpenter," apropos of nothing 
at all, for he never had been a carpenter. But 
the name was the first that occurred to them, and 
sufficiently easy of utterance. It w^as "Carpen- 
ter," and "Mis' Carpenter," and "them Carpenter 
children," and the name still clings to fine old 
Ingebertsen and his family. Grandparents are 
addressed as Grans and Gw^ammaye, Grans being 
an abbreviation of grandsire. " Tell yer grans 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 71 

his dinner 's ready," calls some woman from a cot- 
tage door. One old man, too lazy almost to live, 
was called " Hing " ; one of two brothers " Bmiker," 
the other " Shothead " ; an ancient scold was called 
"Zeke," another "Sir Polly," and so on indefi- 
nitely. In pleasant weather sometimes the younger 
w^omen would paddle from one island to another 
" making calls." If any old " Grans " perceived 
them, loafing at his door in the sun, "It's going 
to storm ! the women begin to flit ! " he would 
cry, as if they were a flock of coots. A woman-, 
describing how slightly her house was put together, 
said, " Lor', 't wan't never built, 't was only hove to- 
gether." " I don' know whe'r or no it's best or no 
to go fishin' whiles mornin','' says some rough fel- 
low, meditating upon the state of winds and waters. 
Of his boat another says with pride, "She's a 
pretty piece of wood ! " and another, " She strikes 
a sea and comes down like a pillow," describing 
her smooth sailing. Some one, relating the way 
the civil authorities used to take political matters 
into their own hands, said that " if a man did n't 
vote as they wanted him to, they took him and 
hove him up agin the meetin' us," by way of bring 
ing him to his senses. Two boys in bitter conten- 
tion have been heard calling each other " nasty- 
faced chowderheads," as if the force of language 



72 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

could no further go. ''I 'm dryer than a graven 
image," a man says when he is thirsty. But it is 
impossible to give an idea of their common speech 
leaving out the profanity which makes it so start- 
ling. 

Some comical stories are told of the behavior of 
officers of the law in certain emergencies. On 
one occasion two men attacked each other in the 
cove which served as the Plaza, the gi'and square 
of the village, the general lounging-place. A 
comrade in a state of excitement ran to inform the 
one policeman, who straightway repaired to the 
scene of battle. There were the combatants raging 
like wild beasts, while the whole community looked 
on aghast. What was to be done] Evidently 
something, and at once. The policeman looked 
about him, considering. As for interfering with 
that fearful twain, it was out of the question. 
His eye fell upon a poor old man who leaned 
against a fish-house enjoying the scene. A happy 
thought struck him ! He dashed down upon the 
ancient and unoffending spectator, and hurled him 
to the ground with such force that he broke his 
collar-bone. Then, I suppose, he retired, serene 
in the proud consciousness of having done his 
duty, and of having been fully equal to the occa- 
sion. 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 73 

Two of the chief magistrates of the place had 
a deadly feud, entirely personal, which had smoul- 
dered between them for years. One day the 
stronger of the two quietly " arrested " the weaker, 
tied him hand and foot with ropes, " hove " him 
into his whale-boat, and sailed off with him in tri- 
umph to the land. Arrived at the city of Ports- 
mouth, he conducted him to jail, delivered hira 
over to the jailer with much satisfaction, crying, 
" There ! There he is ! Take him and lock him 
up ! He 's a poor pris'ner. Don't you give him 
nothin' t' eat ! " and returned rejoicing to the bosom 
of his family. It being Thanksgiving Day, the 
jailer is said to have taken the prisoner at once 
into his house, and, instead of locking him up, 
gave him, according to his own account, "one of 
the best Thanksgiving dinners he ever ate." 

Nearly all the Shoalers have a singular gait, 
contracted from the effort to keep their equilibri- 
um while standing in boats, and from the unavoid- 
able gymnastics which any attempt at locomotion 
among the rocks renders necessary. Some stiff- 
jointed old men have been known to leap wildly 
from broad stone to stone on the smooth, flat 
pavements of Portsmouth town, finding it out of 
the question to walk evenly and decorously along 
the straight and easy way. This is no fable. 
4 



74 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

Such is the force of habit. Most of the men are 
more or less round-shouldered, and seldom row- 
upright, with head erect and shoulders thrown 
back. They stoop so much over the fish-tables — 
"cleaning, splitting, salting, packing — that they 
acquire a permanent habit of stooping. 

Twenty years ago, an old man by the name of 
Peter was alive on Star Island. He w^as said to 
be a hundred years old ; and anything more grisly, 
in the shape of humanity, it has never been my 
lot to behold ; so lean and brown and ancient, 
he might have been Methuselah, for no one knew 
how long he had lived on this rolling planet. 
Years before he died he used to paddle across to 
our lighthouse, in placid summer days, and, scan- 
ning him w^ith a child's curiosity, I wondered 
how he kept alive. A few white hairs clung to 
his yellow crown, and his pale eyes, " where the 
very blue had turned to w^hite," looked vacantly 
and wearily out, as if trying faintly to see the end 
of the things of this w^orld. Somebody, probably 
old Nabbaye, in whose cottage he lived, always 
scoured him with soft soap before he started on 
his voyage, and in consequence a most preter- 
natural shine overspread his blank forehead. His 
under jaw had a disagreeably suggestive habit of 
dropping, he was so feeble and so old, poor wretch ! 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 75 

Yet would he brighten with a faint attempt at a 
smile when bread and meat were put into his 
hands, and say, over and over again, " Ye 're a 
Christian, ma'am; thank ye, ma'am, thank ye," 
thrust all that was given him, no matter what, be- 
tween his one upper garment — a checked shirt — 
and his bare skin, and then, by way of expressing 
his gratitude, would strike up a dolorous quaver 
of— 

" Over the water and over the lea 
And over the water to Charlie," 

in a voice as querulous as a Scotch bagpipe. 

Old Nabbaye, and Bennaye, her husband, with 
whom Peter lived, were a queer old couple. Nab- 
baye had a stubbly and unequal growth of sparse 
gray hair upon her chin, which gave her a most 
grim and terrible aspect, as I remember her, with 
the grizzled locks standing out about her head like 
one of the Furies. Yet she was a good enough 
old woman, kind to Peter and Bennaye, and kept 
her bit of a cottage tidy as might be. I well re- 
member the grit of the shining sand on her scoured 
floor beneath my childish footsteps. The family 
climbed at night by a ladder up into a loft, which 
their little flock of fowls shared with them, to 
sleep. Going by the house one evening, some one 
heard Nabbaye call aloud to Bennaye up aloft, 



76 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

"Come, Bennaye, fetch me down them heens' 
aigs ! " To which Bennaye made answer, " I can't 
find no aigs ! I 've looked een the bed and een un- 
der the bed, and I can't find no aigs ! " 

Till Bennaye grew very feeble, every summer 
night he paddled abroad in his dory to fish for 
hake, and lonely he looked, tossing among the 
waves, when our boat bore down and passed him 
with a hail which he faintly returned, as we 
plunged lightly through the track of the moon- 
light, young and happy, rejoicing in the beauty of 
the night, while poor Bennaye only counted his 
gains in the grisly hake he caught, nor considered 
the rubies the lighthouse scattered on the waves, 
or how the moon sprinkled down silver before him. 
He did not mind the touch of the balmy wind 
that blew across his weather-beaten fiice with the 
same sweet greeting that so gladdened us, but 
fished and fished, watching his line through the 
short summer night, and, when a blush of dawn 
stole up in the east among the stars, wound up his 
tackle, took his oars, and paddled home to Nab- 
baye with his booty, — his " fare of fish " as the 
natives have it. Hake-fishing after this pictur- 
esque and tedious fashion is done away with now ; 
the islands are girdled with trawls, which catch 
more fish in one night than could be obtained in a 
week's hard labor by hand. 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 77 

When the dust of Bennaye and Nabbaye was 
mingled in the thin earth that scarce can cover 
the multitude of the dead on Star Island, a 
youthful couple, in whom I , took great interest, 
occupied their little house. The woman was re- 
markably handsome, with a beautiful head and 
masses of rich black hair, a fiice regular as the 
face of a Greek statue, with eyes that sparkled 
and cheeks that glowed, — a beauty she soon ex- 
changed for haggard and hollow looks. As their 
children were born they asked my advice on the 
christening of each, and, being youthful and ro- 
mantic, I suggested Frederick as a sounding title 
for the first-born boy. Taylor being the reigning 
President, his name was instantly added, and the 
child was always addressed by his whole name. 
Going by the house one day, my ears were assailed 
by a sharp outcry : " Frederick Taylor, if you 
don't come into the house this minute, I '11 slat 
your head off!" The tender mother borrowed 
her expression from the fishermen, who disengage 
mackerel and other delicate-gilled fish by "slat- 
ting " them off" the hook. 

All this family have gone, and the house in 
which they lived has fallen to ruin ; only the cel- 
lar remains, just such a rude hollow as those scat- 
tered over Appledore. 



78 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

The people along the coast rather look down 
upon the Shoalers as being beyond the bounds of 
civilization. A young islander was expressing his 
opinion on some matter to a native of Rye, who 
answered him with great scorn : " You don't know 
Dothin' about it ! What do you know *? You never 
see an apple-tree all blowed out." A Shoaler, 
walking with some friends along a road in Rye, 
excited inextinguishable laughter by clutching his 
companion's sleeve as a toad hopped innocently 
across the way, and crying : " Mr. Berraye, what 
kind of a bug do you call that 1 D — d if I ever 
see such a bug as that, Mr. Berraye ! " in a comi- 
cal terror. There are neither frogs nor toads at 
the Shoals. "Set right down and help your- 
selves," said an old fellow at whose door some 
guests from the Shoals appeared at dinner-time. 
" Eat all you can. I ain't got no manners ; the 
girl 's got the manners, and she ain't to hum." 

One old Shoaler, long since gone to another 
world, was a laughable and curious character. 
A man more wonderfully fulfilling the word 
" homely " in the Yankee sense, I never saw. He 
had the largest, most misshapen cheek-bones ever 
constructed, an illimitable upper lip, teeth that 
should not be mentioned, and small, watery eyes. 
Skin and hair and eyes and mouth w^ere of the 



AMOiYG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 79 

same pasty yellow, and that grotesque head was 
set on a little, thin, and shambling bod}^ He used 
to be head singer at the church, and " pitched the 
tune " by whistling when the parson had read the 
hymn. Then all who could joined in the singing, 
which must have been remarkable, to say the least. 
So great a power of brag is seldom found in one 
human being as that which permeated him from 
top to toe, and found vent in stories of personal 
prowess and bravery unexampled in history. He 
used to tell a story of his encounter with thirteen 
" Spanish grandeers " in New Orleans, he having 
been a sailor a great part of his life. He was in- 
nocently peering into a theatre, when the " gran- 
deers " fell upon him out of the exceeding pride of 
their hearts. " Wall, sir, I turned, and I laid six 
o' them grandeers to the right and seven to the 
left, and then I put her for the old brig, and I 
heerd no more on 'em ! " 

He considered himself unequalled as a musi- 
cian, and would sing you ballad after ballad, sit- 
ting bent forward with his arms on his knees, 
and his wrinkled eyelids screwed tight together, 
grinding out the tune with a quiet steadiness of 
purpose that seemed to betoken no end to his ca- 
pacities. Ballads of love and of war he sang, — 
the exploits of "Brave Wolf," or, as he pronounced 



80 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

it, "Brahn Wolf," and one famous song of a 

naval battle, of which only two lines remain in 

my memory : — 

♦' With sixteen brass nineteens the Lion did jrr]-owl, 
With nineteen brass twenties the Tiger did howl." 

At the close of each verse he invariably dropped 
his voice, and said, instead of sung, the last word, 
which had a most abrupt and surprising effect, to 
which a listener never could become accustomed. 
The immortal ballad of Lord Bateman he had re- 
modelled with beautiful variations of his own. 
The name of the coy maiden, the Turk's only 
daughter, Sophia, was Susan Fryan, according to 
his version, and Lord Bateman was metamorphosed 
into Lord Bakum. When Susan Fryan crosses 
the sea to Lord Bakum's castle and knocks so loud 
that the gates do ring, he makes the bold young 
porter, who was so ready for to let her in, go to 
his master, who sits feasting wdth a new bride, and 
say : — 

" Seven long years have I tended your gate, sir, 
Seven long years out of twenty-three, 
But so fair a creetur as now stands waitin' 
Never before with my eyes did see. 

*' 0, she has rings on every finger, 

And round her middle if she' s one she has three ; 
0, I 'm sui-e she's got more good gold about her 
Than would bu}^ your bride and her companie! " 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. , 81 

The enjoyment with which he gave this song was 

dehghtful to witness. Of the many he used to 

sing, one was a doleful story of how a youth of 

high degree fell in love with his mother's fair 

waiting-woman, Betsy, who w^as in consequence 

immediately transported to foreign lands. But 

alas for her lover ! — 

" Then he fell sick and like to have died; 
His mothei' round his sick-bed cried. 
But all her crying it was in vain, 
For Betsy was a-ploughing the raging main! " 

The word " main " was brought out with startling 

effect. Another song about a miller and his sons 

I only half remember : — 

" The miller he called his oldest son, 
Saying, ' Now my glass it is almost run, 
If I to you the mill relate, 
What toll do you resign to take ? ' 

" The son replied : ' My name is Jack, 
And out of a bushel I '11 take a peck.' 
' Go, go, you fool ! ' the old man cried, 
And called the next to his bedside. 

*' The second said: 'My name is Ralph, 
And out of a bushel I '11 take a half.' 
' Go, go, you fool ! ' the old man cried, 
And called the next to his bedside. 

" The youngest said: " My name is Paul, 
And out of a bushel I '11 take it all ! ' 
' You are my son ! ' the old man cried, 
And shot up his eyes and died in peace." 



82 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

The manner in which this last verse was delivered 
w^as inimitable, the '' died in peace " being spoken 
with great satisfaction. The singer had an ancient 
violin, which he used to hug under his wizened 
chin, and from which he drew such dismal tones 
as never before were heard on sea or land. He 
had no more idea of playing than one of the cod- 
fish he daily split and salted, yet he christened 
w^ith pride all the shrieks and wails he drew out 
of the wretched instrument with various high- 
sounding titles. After he had entertained his au- 
dience for a while with these aimless sounds, he 
was wont to say, " Wall, now I '11 give yer Prince 
Esterhazy's March," and forthwith began again 
precisely the same intolerable squeak. 

After he died, other stars in the musical world 
appeared in the horizon, but none equalled him. 
They all seemed to think it necessary to shut 
their e^'es and squirm like nothing human during 
the process of singing a song, and they " pitched 
the tune " so high that no human voice ever could 
hope to reach it in safety. " Tew high. Bill, tew 
high," one would say to the singer, with slow 
solemnity ; so Bill tried again. " Tew high again, 
Bill, tew high." " Wull, you strike it, Obed," Bill 
would say in despair ; and Obed would ** strike," 
and hit exactly the same impossible altitude, 



AMO.YG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 83 

whereat Bill would slap his knee, and cry in glad 
surprise, " D — d if he ain't got it ! " and forth- 
with catch Obed and launch on his perilous flight, 
and grow red in the face with the mighty eftbrt 
of getting up there, and remaining there through 
the intricacies and variations of the melody. One 
could but wonder whence these queer tunes came, 
— how they were created ; some of them reminded 
one of the creaking and groaning of windlasses and 
masts, the rattling of rowlocks, the whistling of 
winds among cordage, yet with less of music in 
them than these natural sounds. The songs of the 
sailors heaving up the anchor are really beautiful 
often, the wild chant that rises sometimes into a 
grand chorus, all the strong voices borne out on 
the wind in the cry of 

" Yo ho, the roaring river! " 

But these Shoals performances are lacking in any 
charm, except that of the broadest fun. 

The process of dunning, which made the Shoals 
fish so famous a century ago, is almost a lost art, 
though the chief fisherman at Star still " duns" a 
few yearly. A real dunfish is handsome, cut in 
transparent strips, the color of brown sherry 
wine. The process is a tedious one : the fish are 
piled in the storehouse and undergo a period of 



84 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

" sweating " after the first drying, then are carried 
out into sun and wind, dried again slightly, and 
again piled in the warehouse, and so on till the 
process is complete. Drying fish in the common 
flishion is more difficult than might be imagined : 
it is necessary to watch and tend them continually 
as they lie on the picturesque " flakes," and if they 
are exposed at too early a stage to a sun too hot 
they burn as surely as a loaf of bread in an intem- 
perate oven, only the burning does not crisp, but 
liquefies their substance. 

For the last ten years fish have been caught 
about the Shoals by trawl and seine in such quan- 
tities that they are thinning fast, and the trade 
bids fair to be much less lucrative before many 
years have elapsed. The process of drawing the 
trawl is very picturesque and interesting, watched 
from the rocks or from the boat itself. The buoy 
being drawn in, then follow the baited hooks one 
after another. First, perhaps, a rockling shows his 
bright head above water ; a pull, and in he comes 
flapping, with brilliant red fins distended, gaping 
mouth, indigo-colored eyes, and richly mottled 
skin : a few futile somersets, and he subsides into 
slimy dejection. Next, perhaps, a big whelk is 
tossed into the boat ; then a leaden-gray had- 
dock, with its dark stripe of color on each side ; 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 85 

then, perhaps, follow a few bare hooks ; then a 
hake, with horrid, cavernous -mouth ; then a large 
purple star-fish, or a clattering crab ; then a ling, 
— a yellow-brown, wide-mouthed piece of ugliness 
never eaten here, but highly esteemed on the 
coast of Scotland ; then more cod or haddock, or 
perhaps a lobster, bristling with indignation at the 
novel situation in which he finds himself; then 
a ciisk, long, smooth, compact, and dark ; then a 
catfish. Of all fiends commend me to the catfish 
as the most fiendish ! Black as night, with thick 
and hideous skin, which looks a dull, mouldy 
green beneath the water, a head shaped as much 
like a cat's as a fish's head can be, in which the 
devil's own eyes seem to glow w^ith a dull, mali- 
cious gleam, — and such a mouth ! What terrible 
expressions these cold creatures carry to and fro 
in the vast, dim spaces of the sea ! All fish have 
a more or less imbecile and wobegone aspect ; but 
this one looks absolutely evil, and Schiller might 
well say of him that he " grins through the grate 
of his spiky teeth," and sharp and deadly are they ; 
every man looks out for his boots when a catfish 
comes tumbling in, for they bite through leather, 
flesh, and bones. They seize a ballast-stone be- 
tween their jaws, and their teeth snap and fly in 
all directions. I have seen them bite the long 



86 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

blade of a sharp knife so fiercely, that, when it 
was lifted and held aloft, they kept their furious 
gripe, and dangled, flapping all their clumsy 
weight, hanging by their teeth to the blade. 
Sculpins abound, and are a nuisance on the 
trawls. Ugly and grotesque as are the full-grown 
fish, there is nothing among the finny tribe more 
dainty, more quaint and delicate, than the baby 
sculpin. Sometimes in a pool of crystal water 
one comes upon him unawares, — a fairy creature, 
the color of a blush-rose, striped and freaked and 
pied with silver and gleaming green, hanging in 
the almost invisible water as a bird in air, with 
broad, transparent fins sufi'used with a faint pink 
color, stretched wide like wings to upbear the 
supple form. The curious head is only strange, 
not hideous as yet, and one gazes marvelling at 
all the beauty lavished on a thing of so little 
worth. 

Wolf-fish, first cousins to the catfish, are found 
also on the trawls; and dog-fish, with pointed 
snouts and sand-paper skins, abound to such an 
extent as to drive away everything else sometimes. 
Sand-dabs, a kind of flounder, fasten their slug- 
gish bodies to the hooks, and a few beautiful red 
fish, called bream, are occasionally found ; also a 
few blue-fish and sharks ; frequently halibut, — 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 87 

though these latter are generally caught on trawls 
which are made especially for them. Sometimes 
is caught on a trawl a monstrous creature of hor- 
rible aspect, called the nurse-fish, — an immense 
fish weighing twelve hundred pounds, with a 
skin like a nutmeg-grater, and no teeth, — a kind 
of sucker, hence its name. I asked a Shoaler 
what the nurse-fish looked like, and he answered 
promptly, " Like the Devil ! " One weighing 
twelve hundred pounds has " two barrels of 
liver," as the natives phrase it, which is very 
valuable for the oil it contains. One of the fish- 
ermen described a creature which they call mud- 
eel, — a foot and a half long, with a mouth like a 
rat, and two teeth. The bite of this water-snake 
is poisonous, the islanders aver, and tell a story 
of a man bitten by one at Mount Desert last 
year, " who did not live long enough to get to the 
doctor." They bite at the hooks on the trawl, and 
are drawn up in a lump of mud, and the men cut 
the ropes and mangle their lines to get rid of 
them. Huge sunfish are sometimes harpooned, 
lying on the top of the water, — a lump of flesh 
like cocoanut meat encased in a skin like rubber 
cloth, with a most dim and abject hint of a face, 
absurdly disproportionate to the size of the body, 
roughly outlined on the edge. Sword-fish are 



88 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

also harpooned, weighing eight hundred pounds 
and upward ; they are very deUcate food. A 
sword-fish swimming leaves a wake a mile long 
on a calm day, and bewilders the imagination into 
a belief in sea-serpents. There 's a legend that a 
torpedo was caught here once upon a time ; and 
the thrasher, fox-shark, or sea-fox occasionally 
alarms the fisherman with his tremendous flex- 
ible tail, that reaches "from the gunnel to the 
mainmast-top" when the creature comes to the 
surface. Also they tell of skip-jacks that sprang 
on board their boats at night when they were 
hake-fishing, — " little things about as large as 
mice, long and slender, with beaks like birds." 
Sometimes a huge horse-mackerel flounders in and 
drives ashore on a ledge, for the gulls to scream 
over for weeks. Mackerel, herring, porgies, and 
shiners used to abound before the seines so thinned 
them. Bonito and blue-fish and dog-fish help 
drive away the more valuable varieties. It is a 
lovely sight to see a herring-net drawn in, espe- 
cially by moonlight, when every fish hangs like a 
long silver drop from the close-set meshes. Perch 
are found in mexhaustible quantities about the 
rocks, and lump or butter fish are sometimes 
caught ; pollock are very plentiful, — smooth, 
graceful, slender creatures 1 It is fascinating to 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 89 

watch them turniDg somersets in the water close 
to the shore in full tides, or following a boat at 
sunset, and breaking the molten gold of the sea's 
surface with silver-sparkling fin and tail. The 
rudder-fish is sometimes found, and alewives and 
menhaden-. Whales are more or less plentiful in 
summer, " spouting their foam-fountains in the 
sea." Beautiful is the sparkling column of water 
rising suddenly afar off and falling noiselessly 
back again. Not long ago a whale twisted his 
tail in the cable of the schooner Vesper, lying 
to the eastward of the Shoals, and towed the ves- 
sel several miles, at the rate of twenty knots an 
hour, with the water boiling all over her from 
stem to stern ! 

Last winter some of the Shoalers were drawing 
a trawl between the Shoals and Boone Island, 
fifteen miles to the eastward. As they drew in 
the line and relieved each hook of its burden, lo ! 
a horror was lifted half above the surface, — part 
of a human body, which dropped off the hooks 
and was gone, while they shuddered, and stared at 
each other, aghast at the hideous sight. 

Porpoises are seen at all seasons. I never saw 
one near enough to gain a knowledge of its ex- 
pression, but it always seemed to me that these 
fish led a more hilarious life than the gi'eater part 



90 AMONG TEE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

of their race, and I think they must carry less 
dejected countenances than most of the inhab- 
itants of the sea. They frisk so dehghtfully on 
the surface, and ponderously plunge over and over 
with such apparent gayety and satisfaction I I 
remember being out one moonless summer night 
beyond the lighthouse island, in a little boat filled 
with gay young people. The sea was like oil, the 
air was thick and warm, no star broke the upper 
darkness, only now and then the lighthouse threw 
its jewelled track along the water, and through 
the dense air its long rays stretched above, turn- 
ing solemnly, like the luminous spokes of a gigantic 
wheel, as the lamps slowly revolved. There had 
been much talk and song and laughter, much play- 
ing with the w^arm waves (or rather smooth undu- 
lations of the sea, for there was n't a breath of 
wind to make a ripple), which broke at a touch 
into pale-green, phosphorescent fire. Beautiful 
arms, made bare to the shoulder, thrust down into 
the liquid darkness, shone flaming silver and gold ; 
from the fingers playing beneath, fire seemed to 
stream ; emerald sparks clung to the damp dra- 
peries ; and a splashing oar-blade half revealed 
sweet faces and bright young eyes. Suddenly a 
pause came in talk and song and laughter, and in 
the unaccustomed silence we seemed to be waiting 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 91 

for something. At once out of the darkness came 
a slow, tremendous sigh that made us shiver in 
the soft air, as if all the woe and terror of the sea 
were condensed in that immense and awful breath ; 
and we took our oars and pulled homeward, with 
the weird fires flashing from our bows and oar- 
blades. " Only a porpoise blowing," said the in- 
itiated, when we told our tale. It may have been 
" only a porpoise blowing " ; but the leviathan him- 
self could haj'dly have made a more prodigious 
sound. 

Within the lovely limits of summer it is beauti- 
ful to live almost anywhere ; most beautiful where 
the ocean meets the land ; and here particularly, 
where all the varying splendor of the sea en- 
compasses the place, and the ceaseless changing 
of the tides brings continual refreshment into 
the life of every day. But summer is late and 
slow to come ; and long after the mainland has 
begun to bloom and smile beneath the influence 
of spring, the bitter northw^est winds still sweep 
the cold, green water about these rocks, and tear 
its surface into long and glittering waves from 
morning till night, and from night till morning, 
through many weeks. No leaf breaks the frozen 
soil, and no bud swells on the shaggy bushes that 



92 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

clothe the slopes. But if summer is a laggard in 
her coming, she makes up for it by the loveli- 
ness of her lingering into autumn ; for when the 
pride of trees and flowers is despoiled by frost 
on shore, the little gardens here are glowing at 
their brightest, and day after day of mellow splen- 
dor drops like a benediction from the hand of God. 
In the early mornings in September the mists 
draw away from the depths of inland valleys, and 
rise into the lucid w^estern sky, — tall columns and 
towers of cloud, solid, compact, superb ; their 
pure, w^hite, shining heads uplifted into the ether, 
solemn, stately, and still, till some w^andering 
breeze disturbs their perfect outline, and they melt 
about the heavens in scattered fragments as the 
day goes on. Then there are mornings when " all 
in the blue, unclouded weather" the coast-line 
comes out so distinctly that houses, trees, bits of 
white beach, are clearly visible, and with a glass, 
moving forms of carriages and cattle are distin- 
guishable nine miles away. In the transparent 
air the peaks of Mounts Madison, Washington, 
and Jefferson are seen distinctly at a distance of 
one hundred miles. In the early light even the 
green color of the trees is perceptible on the Rye 
shore. All through these quiet days the air is full 
of wandering thistle-down, the inland golden-rod 



AMOXG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 93 

waves its plumes, and close by the water's edge, 
in rocky clefts, its seaside sister blossoms in 
gorgeous color ; the rose-haws redden, the iris 
unlocks its shining caskets, and casts its closely 
packed seeds about, gray berries cluster on the 
bayberry-bushes, the sweet life-everlasting sends 
out its wonderful, delicious fragrance, and the pale 
asters spread their flowers in many-tinted sprays. 
Through October aud into November the fair, 
mild weather lasts. At the first breath of Octo- 
ber, the hillside at Appledore fires up with the 
living crimson of the huckleberry-bushes, as if a 
blazing torch had been applied to it ; the slanting 
light at sunrise and sunset makes a wonderful glory 
across it. The sky deepens its blue ; beneath it 
the brilliant sea glows into violet, and flashes into 
splendid purple where the " tide-rip," or eddying 
winds, make long streaks across its surface (poets 
are not wrong who talk of "purple seas,") the 
air is clear and sparkling, the lovely summer haze 
withdraws, all things take a crisp and tender 
outline, and the cry of the curlew and the plover 
is doubly sweet through the pure, cool air. Then 
sunsets burn in clear and tranquil skies, or flame 
in piled magnificence of clouds. Some night a 
long bar lies, like a smouldering brand, along the 
horizon, deep carmine where the sun has touched 



94 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

it ; and oat of that bar breaks a sudden gale before 
morning, and a fine fury and tumult begins to rage. 
Then comes the fitful weather, — wild winds and 
hurrying waves, low, scudding clouds, tremendous 
rains that shut out everything ; and the rocks lie 
weltering between the sea and sky, with the brief 
fire of the leaves quenched and swept away on the 
hillside, — only rushing wind and streaming water 
everywhere, as if a second deluge were flooding the 
world. 

After such a rain comes a gale from the south- 
east to sweep the sky clear, — a gale so furious 
that it blows the sails straight out of the bolt- 
ropes, if any vessel is so unfortunate as to be 
caught in it with a rag of canvas aloft ; and the 
coast is strewn with the wrecks of such craft as 
happen to be caught on the lee shore, for 

"Anchors drag, and topmasts lap," 

and nothing can hold against this terrible, blind 
fury. It is appalling to listen to the shriek of 
such a wind, even though one is safe upon a rock 
that cannot move ; and more dreadful is it to see 
the destruction one cannot lift a finger to avert. 

As the air grows colder, curious atmospheric 
effects become visible. At the first biting cold the 
distant mainland has the appearance of being taken 
off its feet, as it were, — the line shrunken and 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 95 

distorted, detached from the water at both ends : 
it is as if one looked under it and saw the sk}^ be- 
yond. Then, on bright mornings with a brisk wind, 
Httle wafts of mist rise between the quick, short 
waves, and melt away before noon. At some peri- 
ods of intense cold these mists, which are never in 
banks like fog, rise in irregular, whirling columns 
reaching to the clouds, — shadowy phantoms, torn 
and wild, that stalk past like Ossian's ghosts, sol- 
emnly and noiselessly throughout the bitter day. 
AVhen the sun drops down behind these weird 
processions, with a dark-red, lurid light, it is like a 
vast conflagration, wonderful and terrible to see. 
The columns, that strike and fall athwart the 
island, sweep against the windows with a sound 
like sand, and lie on the ground in ridges, like fine, 
sharp hail; yet the heavens are clear, the heavily 
rolling sea dark-green and white, and, between the 
breaking crests, the misty columns stream toward 
the sk3^ 

Sometimes a totally different vapor, like cold, 
black smoke, rolls out from the land, and flows 
over the sea to an unknown distance, swallowing 
up the islands on its way. Its approach is hideous 
to witness. " It 's all thick o' black vapor," some 
islander announces, coming in from out of doors ; 
just as they say, " It 's all thick o' white foam," 



96 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

when the sudden squall tears the sea into fringes 
of spray. 

In December the colors seem to fade out of the 
world, and utter ungraciousness prevails. The 
great, cool, whispering, delicious sea, that encir- 
cled us with a thousand caresses the beautiful 
summer through, turns slowly our sullen and in- 
veterate enemy ; leaden it lies beneath a sky like 
tin, and rolls its " white, cold, heavy-plunging 
foam" against a shore of iron. Each island 
wears its chalk-white girdle of ice between the 
rising and falling tides (edged with black at low- 
water, where the lowest-growing seaweed is ex- 
posed), making the stern bare rocks above more 
■forbidding by their contrast with its stark white- 
ness, — and the whiteness of salt-water ice is 
ghastly. Nothing stirs abroad, except perhaps 

"A lonel}' sea-bird crosses, 
With one waft of wing," 

your view, as you gaze from some spray-in- 
crusted window ; or you behold the weather- 
beaten schooners creeping along the blurred 
coast-line from Cape Elizabeth and the northern 
ports of Maine towards Cape Ann, laden with lum- 
ber or lime, and sometimes, rarely, with hay or 
provisions. 

After winter has fairly set in, the lonely dwellers 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 97 

at the Isles of Shoals find life quite as much as 
they can manage, being so entirely thrown upon 
their own resources that it requires all the philos- 
ophy at their disposal to answer the demand. In 
the village, where several families make a little 
community, there should be various human inter- 
ests outside each separate fireside ; but of their 
mode of life I know little. Upon three of the 
islands live isolated families, cut off" by the " al- 
ways wind-obeying deep" from each other and 
from the mainland, sometimes for weeks together, 
when the gales are fiercest, wath no letters nor 
intercourse with any living thing. Some sullen 
day in December the snow begins to fall, and the 
last touch of desolation is laid upon the scene ; 
there is nothing any more but white snow and 
dark water, hemmed in by a murky horizon; and 
nothing moves or sounds within its circle but the 
sea harshly assailing the shore, and the chill wind 
that sweeps across. Toward night the wind be- 
gins to rise, the snow whirls and drifts, and clings 
wherever it can find a resting-place ; and though 
so much is blown away, yet there is enough left to 
smother up the rock and make it almost impos- 
sible to move about on it. The drifts sometimes 
are very deep in the hollows ; one wnnter, sixteen 
sheep were buried in a drift, in which they re- 
5 G 



98 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

mained a week, and, strange to say, only one was 
dead when they were discovered. One goes to 
sleep in the muffled roar of the storm, and wakes 
to find it still raging with senseless fury ; all day 
it continues ; towards night the curtain of falling 
flakes withdraws, a faint light shows westward ; 
slowly the clouds roll together, the lift grows bright 
with pale, clear blue over the land, the wind has 
hauled to the northwest, and the storm is at an 
end. When the clouds are swept away by the 
besom of the pitiless northwest, how the stars 
glitter in the frosty sky ! What wondrous stream- 
ers of northern lights flare through the winter 
darkness ! I have seen the sky at midnight crim- 
son and emerald and orange and blue in palpitat- 
ing sheets along the whole northern half of the 
heavens, or rosy to the zenith, or belted with a 
bar of solid yellow light from east to west, as if 
the world were a basket, and it the golden handle 
thereto. The weather becomes of the first impor- 
tance to the dwellers on the rock ; the changes of 
the sky and sea, the flitting of the coasters to and 
fro, the visits of the sea-fowl, sunrise and sunset, 
the changing moon, the northern lights, the con- 
stellations that wheel in splendor through tho 
winter night, — all are noted with a love and 
careful scrutiny that is seldom given by people 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 99 

living in populous places. One grows accustomed 
to the aspect of the constellations, and they seem 
like the faces of old friends looking down out of 
the awful blackness; and when in summer the 
great Orion disappears, how it is missed out of 
the sky ! I remember the delight with which we 
caught a glimpse of the planet Mercury, in March, 
1868, following close at the heels of the sinking 
sun, redly shining in the reddened horizon, — a 
stranger mysterious and utterly unknown before. 

For these things make our world : there are no 
lectures, operas, concerts, theatres, no music of 
any kind, except what the waves may whisper in 
rarely gentle moods ; no galleries of wonders like 
the Natural History rooms, in which it is so fas- 
cinating to wander; no streets, shops, carriages, 
no postman, no neighbors, not a door-bell within 
the compass of the place ! Never was life so ex- 
empt from interruptions. The eight or ten small 
schooners that carry on winter fishing, flying to 
and fro through foam and squall to set and haul 
in their trawls, at rare intervals bring a mail, — 
an accumulation of letters, magazines, and news- 
papers that it requires a long time to plod through. 
This is the greatest excitement of the long win- 
ters ; and no one can truly appreciate the delight 
of letters till he has lived where he can hear from 
his friends only once in a month. 



100 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

But the best balanced human mmd is prone to 
lose its elasticity, and stagnate, in this isolation. 
One learns immediately the value of work to keep 
one's wits clear, cheerful, and steady ; just as much 
real work of the body as it can bear without wea- 
riness being always beneficent, but here indispen- 
sable. And in this matter women have the ad- 
vantage of men, who are condemned to fold their 
hands when their tasks are done. No woman need 
ever have a vacant minute, — there are so many 
pleasant, useful things which she may, and had 
better do. Blessed be the man who invented 
knitting ! (I never heard that a woman invented 
this or any other art.) It is the most charming 
and picturesque of quiet occupations, leaving the 
knitter free to read aloud, or talk, or think, while 
steadily and surely beneath the flying fingers the 
comfortable stocking grows. 

No one can dream what a charm there is in 
taking care of pets, singing-birds, plants, etc., 
with such advantages of solitude ; how every leaf 
and bud and flower is pored over, and admired, 
and loved ! A whole conservatory, flushed with 
azaleas, and brilliant with forests of camellias and 
every precious exotic that blooms, could not im- 
part so much delight as I have known a single rose 
to give, unfolding in the bleak bitterness of a day 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 101 

in February, when this side of the planet seemed 
to have arrived at its cuhnination of hopelessness, 
Avith the Isles of Shoals the most hopeless speck 
upon its surface. One gets close to the heart of 
these things ; they are almost as precious as Pic- 
ciola to the prisoner, and yield a fresh and con- 
stant joy, such as the pleasure-seeking inhabitants 
of cities could not find in their whole round of 
shifting diversions. With a bright and cheerful 
interior, open fires, books, and pictures, windows 
full of thrifty blossoming plants and climbing vines, 
a family of singing-birds, plenty of work, and a 
clear head and quiet conscience, it would go hard 
if one could not be happy even in such loneliness. 
Books, of course, are inestimable. Nowhere does 
one follow a play of Shakespeare's with greater 
zest, for it brings the whole world, which you need, 
about you ; doubly precious the deep thoughts 
wise men have given to help us, — doubly sweet 
the songs of all the poets ; for nothing comes be- 
tween to distract you. 

One realizes how hard it was for Robinson Cru- 
soe to keep the record of his lonely days ; for 
even in a family of eight or nine the succession is 
kept with difficulty. I recollect that, after an 
unusually busy Saturday, when household work 
was done, and lessons said, and the family were 



102 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

looking forward to Sunday and merited leisure, at 
sunset came a young Star-Islander on some errand 
to our door. One said to him, " Well, Jud, how- 
many fish have they caught to-day at Star]" 
Jud looked askance and answered, like one who 
did not w^ish to be trifled with, " We don't go 
a-fishing Sundays ! " So we had lost our Sunday, 
thinking it was Saturday; and next day began the 
usual business, with no break of refreshing rest 
between. 

Though the thermometer says that here it is 
twelve degrees warmer in winter than on the main- 
land, the difference is hardly perceptible, — the 
situation is so bleak, while the winds of the north 
and west bite like demons, with all the bitter 
breath of the snowy continent condensed in their 
deadly chill. Easterly and southerly gales are 
milder ; we have no east winds such as sadden 
humanity on shore ; they are tempered to gentle- 
ness by some mysterious means. Sometimes there 
are periods of cold which, though not intense (the 
mercury seldom falling lower than 11° above zero), 
are of such long duration that the fish are killed 
in the sea. This happens frequently with perch, 
the dead bodies of which strew the shores and float 
on the water in masses. Sometimes ice forms in 
the mouth of the Piscataqua River, which, contin- 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 103 

ually broken into unequal blocks by the rushing 
tide and the immense pressure of the outer ocean, 
fills the space between the islands and the shore, 
so that it is very difficult to force a boat through. 
The few schooners moored about the islands be- 
come so loaded with ice that sometimes they sink ; 
every plunge into the assailing waves adds a fresh 
crust, infinitely thin ; but in twenty-four hours 
enough accumulates to sink the vessel ; and jt is 
part of the day's work in the coldest weather to 
beat off" the ice, — and hard work it is. Every 
time the bowsprit dips under, the man who sits 
astride it is immersed to his waist in the freezing 
w^ater, as he beats at the bow to free the laboring 
craft. I cannot imagine a harder life than the 
sailors lead in winter in the coasting-vessels that 
stream in endless processions to and fro along the 
shore ; and they seem to be the hardest set of 
people under the sun, — so rough and reckless that 
they are not pleasant even at a distance. Some- 
times they land here. A crew of thirteen or four- 
teen came on shore last winter ; they might 
have been the ghosts of the men who manned the 
picaroons that used to sw^arm in these seas, A 
more piratical-looking set could not well be imag- 
ined. They roamed about, and glared in at the 
windows with weather-beaten, brutal faces, and 



104 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

eyes that showed traces of whiskey, ugly and un- 
mistakable. 

No other visitors break the solitude of Apple- 
dore, except neighbors from Star once in a while ; 
if any one is sick, they send, perhaps, for medicine 
or milk ; or they bring some rare fish ; or if any 
one dies, and they cannot reach the mainland, 
they come to get a coffin made. I never shall for- 
get one long, dreary, drizzly northeast storm, when 
two men rowed across from Star to Appledore on 
this errand. A little child had died, and they 
could not sail co the mainland, and had no means 
to construct a coffin among themselves. All day 
I watched the making of that little chrysalis ; and 
at night the last nail was driven in, and it lay 
across a bench in the midst of the litter of the 
workshop, and a curious stillness seemed to ema- 
nate from the senseless boards. I went back to 
the house and gathered a handful of scarlet gera- 
nium, and returned with it through the rain. 
The brilliant blossoms were sprinkled with glitter- 
ing drops. I laid them in the little coffin, while 
the w^ind w^ailed so sorrowfully outside, and the 
rain poured against the w'indows. Two men came 
through the mist and storm, and one swung the 
light little shell to his shoulder, and they carried 
it away, and the gathering darkness shut down and 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 105 

hid them as they tossed among the waves. I 
never saw the little girl, but where they buried 
her I know : the lighthouse shines close by, and 
every night the quiet, constant ray steals to her 
grave and softly touches it, as if to say, with a 
caress, " Sleep well ! Be thankful you are spared 
so much that I see humanity endure, fixed here 
forever where I stand ! " 

It is exhilarating, spite of the intense cold, to 
wake to the brightness the northwest gale always 
brings, after the hopeless smother of a prolonged 
snow-storm. The sea is deep indigo, whitened 
with flashing waves all over the surface ; the sky 
is speckless ; no cloud passes across it the whole 
day long ; and the sun sets red and clear, without 
any abatement of the wind. The spray flying on 
the western shore for a moment is rosy as the 
sinking sun shines through, but for a moment 
only, — and again there is nothing but the ghastly 
whiteness of the salt-water ice, the cold, gray rock, 
the sullen, foaming brine, the unrelenting heavens, 
and the sharp wind cutting like a knife. All night 
long it roars beneath the hollow sky, — roars still 
at sunrise. Again the day passes precisely like 
the one gone before ; the sun lies in a glare of 
quicksilver on the western water, sinks again in 
the red west to rise on just such another day ; 
5 



106 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

and thus goes on, for weeks sometimes, with an 
exasperating pertinacity that would try the most 
philosophical patience. There comes a time when 
just that glare of quicksilver on the water is not 
to be endured a minute longer. During this pe- 
riod no boat goes to or comes from the mainland, 
and the prisoners on the rock are cut off from all 
intercourse with their kind. Abroad, only the 
cattle move, crowding into the sunniest corners, 
and stupidly chewing the cud ; and the hens and 
ducks, that chatter and cackle and cheerfully crow 
in spite of fate and the northwest gale. The 
dauntless and graceful gulls soar on their strong 
pinions over the drift cast up about the coves. 
Sometimes flocks of snow-buntings wheel about 
the house and pierce the loud breathing of the 
wind with sweet, wild cries. And often the spec- 
tral arctic owl may be seen on a height, sitting 
upright, like a column of snow, its large, round 
head slowly turning from left to right, ever on the 
alert, watching for the rats that plague the settle- 
ment almost as grievously as they did Hamelin 
town, in Brunswick, five hundred years ago. 

How the rats came here first is not known ; 
probably some old ship imported them. They 
live partly on mussels, the shells of which lie in 
heaps about their holes, as the violet-lined fresh- 



AMONG TEE ISLES OF SHOALS. 107 

water shells lie about the nests of the muskrats 
on the mainland. They burrow among the rocks 
close to the shore, in favorable spots, and, some- 
what like the moles, make subterranean galleries, 
whence they issue at low tide, and, stealing to the 
crevices of seaweed-curtained rocks, they fall upon 
and dislodge any unfortunate crabs they may find, 
and kill and devour them. Many a rat has caught 
a Tartar in this perilous kind of hunting, has been 
draofored into the sea and killed, — drowned in the 
clutches of the crab he sought to devour ; for the 
strength of these shell-fish is something astonish- 
ing. 

Several snowy owls haunt the islands the whole 
winter long. I have never heard them cry like 
other owls ; when disturbed or angry, they make 
a sound like a watchman's rattle, very loud and 
harsh, or they whistle with intense shrillness, like 
a human being. Their habitual silence adds to 
their ghostliness ; and when at noonday they sit, 
high up, snow-white above the snow-drifts, blink- 
ing their pale yellow eyes in the sun, they are 
weird indeed. One night in March I saw one 
perched upon a rock between me and the ''last 
remains of sunset dimly burning " in the west, his 
curious outline drawn black against the redness of 
the sky, his large head bent forward, and the 



108 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

whole aspect meditative and most human in its 
expression. I longed to go out and sit beside him 
and talk to him in the twilight, to ask of him the 
story of his life, or, if he would have permitted it, 
to watch him without a word. The plumage of 
this creature is wonderfully beautiful, — white, 
with scattered spots like little flecks of tawny 
cloud, — and his black beak and talons are pow- 
erful and sharp as iron ; he might literally grapple 
his friend, or his enemy, with hooks of steel. As 
he is clothed in a mass of down, his outlines are 
so soft that he is like an enormous snowflake while 
flying; and he is a sight worth seeing when he 
stretches wide his broad wings, and sweeps down 
on his prey, silent and swift, with an unerring aim, 
and bears it ofl" to the highest rock he can find„ 
to devour it. In the summer one finds frequently 
upon the heights a little, solid ball of silvery fur 
and pure white bones, washed and bleached by 
the rain and sun ; it is the rat's skin and skeleton 
in a compact bundle, which the owl rejects after 
having swallowed it. 

Some quieter day, on the edge of a southerly 
wind, perhaps, boats go out over the gray, sad 
water after sea-fowl, — the murres that swim in 
little companies, keeping just out of reach of 
shot, and are so spiteful that they beat the boat 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 109 

with their beaks, when wounded, in impotent 
rage, till they are despatched with an oar or 
another shot ; or kittiwakes, — exquisite creatures 
like living forms of snow and cloud in color, with 
beaks and feet of dull gold, — that come when 
you wave a white handkerchief, and flutter almost 
within reach of your hand ; or oldwives, called by 
the natives scoldenores, with clean white caps ; or 
clumsy eider-ducks, or coots, or mergansers, or 
whatever they may find. Black ducks, of course, 
are often shot. Their jet-black, shining plumage 
is splendidly handsome, set off with the broad, 
flame-colored beak. Little auks, stormy-petrels, 
loons, grebes, lords-and-ladies, sea-pigeons, sea- 
parrots, various guillemots, and all sorts of gulls 
abound. Sometimes an eagle sweeps over; gan- 
nets pay occasional visits ; the great blue heron is 
often seen in autumn and spring. One of the 
most striking birds is the cormorant, called here 
" shag " ; from it the rock at Duck Island takes its 
name. It used to be an object of almost awful 
interest to me when I beheld it perched upon 
White Island Head, — a solemn figm^e, high and 
dark against the clouds. Once, while living on 
that island, in the thickest of a great storm in 
autumn, when we seemed to be set between two 
contending armies, deafened by the continuous 



110 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

cannonading of breakers, and lashed and beaten 
by winds and waters till it was almost impos- 
sible to hear ourselves speak, we became aw\are 
of another sound, wdiich pierced to our ears, 
bringing a sudden terror lest it should be the 
voices of human beings. Opening the window 
a little, what a wdld combination of sounds 
came shrieking in ! A large flock of wild geese 
had settled for safety upon the rock, and com- 
pletely surrounded us, • — agitated, clamorous, 
w^eary. We might have secured any number of 
them, but it w^ould have been a shameful thing. 
We were glad, indeed, that they should share our 
little foothold in that chaos, and they flew away 
unhurt when the tempest lulled. I was a very 
young child when this happened, but I never can 
forget that autumn night, — it seemed so w^onder- 
ful and pitiful that those storm-beaten birds should 
have come crying to our rock ; and the strange^ 
wild chorus that swept in when the window was 
pried open a little took so strong a hold upon my 
imagination that I shall hear it as long as I live. 
The lighthouse, so beneficent to mankind, is the 
destroyer of birds, — of land birds particularly, 
though in thick weather sea-birds are occasionally 
bewildered into breaking their heads against the 
glass, plunging forward headlong towards the 



AMOiVG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. HI 

light, just as the frail moth of summer evenings 
madly seeks its death in the candle's blaze. Some- 
times in autumn, always in spring, when birds are 
migrating, they are destroyed in such quantities by 
this means that it is painful to reflect upon. The 
keeper living at the island three years ago told me 
that he picked up three hundred and seventy-five 
in one morning at the foot of the lighthouse, all 
dead. They fly with such force against the glass 
that their beaks are often splintered. The keeper 
said he found the destruction greatest in hazy 
weather, and he thought " they struck a ray at a 
great distance and followed it up." Many a May 
morning have I wandered about the rock at the 
foot of the tower mourning over a little apron brimful 
of sparrows, swallows, thrushes, robins, fire- winged 
blackbirds, many-colored warblers and fly-catchers, 
beautifully clothed yellow-birds, nuthatches, cat- 
birds, even the purple finch and scarlet tanager 
and golden oriole, and many more beside, — ■ 
enough to break the heart of a small child to 
think of! Once a m^eat eagle flew aorainst the 
lantern and shivered the glass. That was before 
I lived there ; but after we came, two gulls 
cracked one of the large, clear j)anes, one stormy 
night. 

The sea-birds are comparatively few and shy at 



112 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

this time ; but I remember when they were plenti- 
ful enough, when on Duck Island in summer the 
"medrakes," or tern, made rude nests on the 
beach, and the little yellow gulls, just out of the 
eggs, ran tumbling about among the stones, hid- 
ing their foolish heads in every crack and cranny, 
and, like the ostrich, imagining themselves safe so 
long as they could not see the danger. And even 
now the sandpipers build in numbers on the 
islands, and the young birds, which look like tiny 
tufts of fog, run about among the bayberry- 
bushes, with sweet, scared piping. They are ex- 
quisitely beautiful and delicate, covered w^ith a 
down just like gray mist, with brilliant black eyes, 
and slender, graceful legs that make one think of 
grass-stems. And here the loons congregate in 
spring and autumn. These birds seem to me the 
most human and at the same time the most de- 
moniac of their kind. I learned to imitate their 
different cries ; they are wonderful ! At one time 
the loon language was so f;imiliar that I could al- 
most always summon a considerable flock by 
going down to the water and assuming the neigh- 
borly and conversational tone which they generally 
use : after calling a few minutes, first a far-oft" 
voice responded, then other voices answered him, 
and when this was kept up a while, half a dozen 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 113 

birds would come sailing in. It was the most 
delightful little party imaginable ; so comical 
were they, so entertaining, that it was impossible 
not to laugh aloud, — and they could laugh too, 
in a way which chilled the marrow of one's bones. 
They always laugh, wdien shot at, if they are 
missed ; as the Shoalers say, " They laugh like a 
warrior." But their long, wild, melancholy cry 
before a storm is the most awful note I ever heard 
from a bird. It is so sad, so hopeless, — a clear, 
high shriek, shaken, as it drops into silence, into 
broken notes tliat make you think of the flutter- 
ing of a pennon in the wind, — a shudder of sound. 
They invariably utter this cry before a storm. 

Between the gales from all points of the com- 
pass, that 

" 'twixt the green sea and the aznred vault 
Set roanng war," 

some day there falls a dead calm ; the whole ex- 
panse of the ocean is like a mirror ; there 's not a 
whisper of a wave, not a sigh from any wind 
about the world, — an awful, breathless pause pre- 
vails. Then if a loon swims into the motionless 
little bights about the island, and raises his weird 
cry, the silent rocks re-echo the unearthly tone, 
and it seems as if the creature were in league with 
the mysterious forces that are so soon to turn this 




114 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

deathly stillness into confusion and dismay. All 
through the day the ominous quiet lasts ; in the 
afternoon, while yet the sea is glassy, a curious 
undertone of mournful sound can be perceived, • — 
not fitful, — a steady moan such as the wind 
makes over the mouth of an empty jar. Then 
the islanders say, " Do you hear Hog Island cr}^- 
ing 1 Now look out for a storm ! " No one 
knows how that low moaning is produced, or why 
Appledore, of all the islands, should alone lament 
before the tempest. Through its gorges, perhaps, 
some current of wind sighs with that hollow cry. 
Yet the sea could hardly keep its unruffled sur- 
face were a wind abroad sufficient to draw out the 
boding sound. Such a calm preceded the storm 
which destroyed the Minot's Lodge Lighthouse in 
18-19. I never knew such silence. Though the 
sun blazed without a cloud, the sky and sea were 
utterly wan and colorless, and before sunset the 
mysterious tone began to vibrate in the breezeless 
air. "Hog Island's crying!" said the islanders. 
One could but think of the Ancient Mariner, as 
the angry sun went down in a brass}^ glare, and 
still no ripple broke the calm. \ But with the twi- 
light gathered the waiting wind, slowly and stead- 
ily ; and before morning the shock of the breakers 
was like the incessant thundering of heavy guns ; 



AMOXG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 115 

the solid rock perceptibly trembled ; windows 
shook, and glass and china rattled in the house. 
It is impossible to describe the confusion, the tu- 
mult, the rush and roar and thunder of waves 
and w^ind overwhelming those rocks, — the whole 
Atlantic rushing headlong to cast itself upon 
them. It w^as very exciting : the most timid 
among us lost all sense of fear. Before the next 
night the sea had made a breach through the 
valley on Appledore, in which the houses stand, 
— a thing that never had happened within the 
memory of the oldest inhabitant. The waves 
piled in from the eastward (where Old Harry was 
tossing the breakers sky-high), — a maddened troop 
of giants, sweeping everything before them, — 
and followed one another, white as milk, through 
the valley from east to west, strewing the space 
with boulders from a solid wall six feet high and 
as many thick, wdiich ran across the top of the 
beach, and which one tremendous wave toppled 
over like a child's fence of blocks. Kelp and sea- 
weed were piled in banks high up along the shore, 
and strewed the doorsteps; and thousands of 
the hideous creatures known among the Shoalers 
as sea - mice, a holothurian (a livid, shapeless 
mass of torpid life), were scattered in all direc- 
tions. While the storm was at its heio-ht, it was 



"116 A3fONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

impossible to do anything but watch it through 
windows beaten by the bhnding spray which burst 
in flying clouds all over the island, drenching 
every inch of the soil in foaming brine. In the 
coves the " yeasty surges " were churned into yel- 
low masses of foam, that blew across in trembling 
flakes, and clung wherever they lit, leaving a 
hoary scum of salt when dry, which remained till 
sweet, fair water dropped out of the clouds to 
wash it all away. It was long before the sea went 
down ; and, days after the sun began to shine, the 
fringe of spray still leaped skyward from the 
eastern shore, and Shag and Mingo Rocks at 
Duck Island tossed their distant clouds of snow 
against the blue. / 

After the wind subsided, it was curious to ex- 
amine the effects of the breakers on the eastern 
shore, where huge masses of rock were struck off" 
from the cliff's, and flung among the wild heaps of 
scattered boulders, to add to the already hopeless 
confusion of the gorges. The eastern aspects of 
the islands change somewhat every year or two 
from this cause ; and, indeed, over all their surfaces 
continual change goes on from the action of the 
weather. Under the hammer and chisel of frost 
and heat, masses of stone are detached and fall 
from the edo-es of cliff's, whole ledo-es become disin- 



AilOiVG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 117 

tegrated, the rock cracks in smooth, thin sheets, 
and, once loosened, the whole mass can be pulled 
out, sheet by sheet. Twenty years ago those sub- 
tle, irresistible tools of the weather hnd cracked off 
a large mass of rock from a ledge on the slope 
of a gentle declivity. I could just lay my hand in 
the space then : now three men can walk abreast 
between the ledge and the detached mass ; and 
nothing has touched it save heat and cold. The 
whole aspect of the rocks is infinitely aged. I 
never can see the beautiful salutation of sunrise 
upon their hoary fronts, without thinking how 
many millions of times they have answered to 
that delicate touch. On Boone Island, — a low, 
dangerous rock fifteen miles east of the Shoals, — 
the sea has even greater opportunities of destruc- 
tion, the island is so low. Once, after a stormy 
night, the lighthouse-keeper told me the family 
found a great stone, weighing half a ton, in the 
back entry, which Father Neptune had deposited 
there, — his card, with his compliments ! , 

Often tremendous breakers encompass the isl- 
ands when the surface of the sea is perfectly calm 
and the weather serene and still, — the results of 
great storms far out at sea. A " long swell " 
swings indolently, and the ponderous waves roll in 
as if tired and half asleep, to burst into clouds of 



118 AMOXG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

splendor against the cliffs. Very different is their 

huiTied, eager breaking when the shoulder of a 

gale compels them. ; There is no sound more 

gentle, more slumberous, than the distant roll of 

these billows,. — 

" The rolling sea resonnding soft," 

as Spenser has it. The rush of a fully alive and 

closely pursued breaker is, at a distance, precisely 

like that which a rocket makes, sweeping headlong 

upward through the air ; but the other is a long 

and peaceful sigh, a dreamy, lulling, beautiful 

sound, which produces a Lethean forgetfulness of 

care and pain, makes all earthly ill seem unreal, 

and it is as if one wandered 

"In dreamful wastes, where footless fancies dwell." 

It requires a strong effort to emerge from this 

lotus-eating state of mind. 0, lovely it is, on 

sunny afternoons to sit high up in a crevice of the 

rock and look down on the living magnificence of 

breakers such as made music about us after the 

Minot's Ledge storm, — to w^atch them gather, 

one after another, 

" Cliffs of emerald topped with snow, 
That lift and lift, and then let go 
A*gi-eat white avalanche of thunder," 

wdiich makes the solid earth tremble, and you, 

clinging to the moist rock, feel like a little cockle- 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 119 

shell ! If you are out of the reach of the heavy 
fall of spray, the hue salt mist will still stream 
about you, aud salute your cheek with the health- 
ful freshuess of the brine, make your hair damp, 
and encrust your eyebrows with salt. While 
you sit watching the shifting splendor, uprises 
at once a higher cloud than usual ; and across 
it springs a sudden rainbow, like a beautiful 
thought beyond the reach of human expres- 
sion. High over your head the white gulls soar, 
gathering the sunshine in the snowy hollows of 
their wungs. As you look up to them floating in 
the fathomless blue, there is something awful in 
the purity of that arch beneath their wings, in 
light or shade, as the broad pinions move with 
stately grace. There is no bird so white, — nor 
swan, nor dove, nor mystic ibis : about the ocean- 
marges there is no dust to soil their perfect 
snow, and no stormy wind can ruffle their delicate 
plumes, — the beautiful, happy creatures ! One 
never tires of w^atching them. Again and again 
appears the rainbow with lovely colors melting 
into each other and vanishing, to appear again at 
the next upspringing of the spray. On the horizon 
the white sails shine; and far and wide spreads 
the blue of the sea, with nothing between you and 
the eastern continent across its vast, calm plain. 



120 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

I well remember my first sight of White Island, 
where we took up our abode on leaving the main- 
land. I was scarcely five years old ; but from the 
upper windows of our dwelling in Portsmouth, I 
had been shown the clustered masts of ships lying 
at the wharves along the Piscataqua River, faintly 
outlined against the sky, and, baby as I was, even 
then I was drawn, with a vague longing, seaward. 
How delightful was that long, first sail to the Isles 
of Shoals ! How pleasant the unaccustomed 
sound of the incessant ripple against the boat-side, 
the sight of the wide water and limitless sky, the 
warmth of the broad sunshine that made us blink 
like young sandpipers as we sat in triumph, perched 
among the household goods with which the little 
craft was laden ! It was at sunset in autumn that 
we were set ashore on that loneliest, lovely rock, 
where the lighthouse looked down on us like some 
tall, black-capped giant, and filled me with awe 
and wonder. At its base a few goats were grouped 
on the rock, standing oiit dark against the red sky 
as I looked up at them. The stars were beginning 
to twinkle ; the wind blew cold, charged with the 
sea's sweetness ; the sound of many waters half 
bewildered me. Some one began to light the 
lamps in the tower. Ptich red and golden, they 
swung round in mid-air; everything was strange 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 121 

and fascinating and new. We entered the quaint 
little old stone cottage that was for six years our 
home. How curious it seemed, with its low, 
whitewashed ceiling and deep window-seats, show- 
ing the great thickness of the walls made to with- 
stand the breakers, with whose force we soon grew 
acquainted ! A blissful home the little house be- 
came to the children who entered it that quiet 
evening and slept for the first time lulled by the 
murmiu' of the encircling sea. I do not think a 
happier triad ever existed than we were, living 
in that profound isolation. \It takes so little 
to make a healthy child happy i and we never 
wearied of our few resources. True, the winters 
seemed as long as a whole year to our little minds, 
but they were pleasant, nevertheless. Into the 
deep window-seats we climbed, and with pennies 
(for which we had no other use) made round holes 
in the thick frost, breathing on them till they 
were warm, and peeped out at the bright, fierce, 
windy weather, watching the vessels scudding 
over the intensely dark blue sea, all ''feather- 
white " where the short waves broke hissing in the 
cold, and the sea-fowl soaring aloft or tossing on 
the water ; or, in calmer days, we saw how the 
stealthy Star-Islander paddled among the ledges, 
or lay for hours stretched on the wet sea-weed, 
6 



122 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

with his gun, watching for wild-fowl. Sometimes 
the round head of a seal moved about among the 
kelp-covered rocks. A few are seen every winter, 
and are occasionally shot ; but they are shyer and 
more alert even than the birds. 

We were forced to lay in stores of all sorts in 
the autumn, as if we were fitting out a ship for an 
Arctic expedition. The lower story of the light- 
house was hung with mutton and beef, and the 
store-room packed with provisions. 

In the long, covered walk that bridged the 
gorge between the lighthouse and the house, we 
played in stormy days ; and every evening it was 
a fresh excitement to watch the lighting of the 
lamps, and think how far the lighthouse sent its 
rays, and how many hearts it gladdened with as- 
surance of safety. As I grew older I was allowed 
to kindle the lamps sometimes myself That was 
indeed a pleasure. So little a creature as I might 
do that much for the great world ! But by the 
fireside our best pleasure lay, — with plants and 
singing 'birds and books and playthings and lov- 
ing care and kindness the cold and stormy season 
wore itself at last away, and died into the summer 
calm. We hardly saw a human face beside our 
own all winter; but with the spring came mani- 
fold life to our lonel}^ dwelling, — human life 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 123 

among other forms. Our neighbors from Star 
rowed across; the pilot -boat from Portsmouth 
steered over, and brought us letters, newspapers, 
magazines, and told us the news of months. The 
faint echoes from the far-off world hardly touched 
us little ones. We listened to the talk of our 
elders. " Winfield Scott and Santa Anna ! " " The 
war in Mexico ! " " The famine in Ireland ! " It 
all meant nothing to us. We heard the reading 
aloud of details of the famine, and saw tears in 
the eyes of the reader, and were vaguely sorry ; 
but the lixte of Red Riding-Hood was much more 
near and dreadful to us. We waited for the 
spring with an eager longing ; the advent of the 
growing grass, the birds and flowers and insect 
life, the soft skies and softer winds, the everlast- 
ing beauty of the thousand tender tints that 
clothed the world, — these things brought us un- 
speakable bliss. To the heart of Nature one 
must needs be drawn in such a life ; and very soon 
I learned how richly she repays in deep refresh- 
ment the reverent love of her worshipper. ■ With 
the first warm days we built our little mountains 
of wet gravel on the beach, and danced after the 
sandpipers at the edge of the foam, shouted to 
the gossiping kittiwakes that fluttered above, or 
watched the pranks of the burgomaster gull, or 



124 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

cried to the crying loons. The gannet's long, 
white wings stretched overhead, perhaps, or the 
dusky shag made a sudden shadow in mid-air, or 
we startled on some lonely ledge the great blue 
heron that flew off, trailing legs and wings, stork- 
like, against the clouds. Or, in the sunshine on 
the bare rocks, we cut from the broad, brown 
leaves of the slippery, varnished kelps, grotesque 
shapes of man and bird and beast that withered 
in the wind and blew away ; or we fashioned rude 
boats from bits of driftwood, manned them with 
a weird crew of kelpies, and set them adrift on the 
great deep, to float we cared not whither. 

We played with the empty limpet-shells ; they 
were mottled gray and brown, like the song-spar- 
row's breast. We launched floets of purple mus- 
sel-shells on the still pools in the rocks, left by 
the tide, — pools that were like bits of fallen 
rainbow with the wealth of the sea, with tints of 
delicate sea-weeds, crimson and green and ruddy 
brown and violet ; where wandered the pearly eolis 
with rosy spines and fairy horns ; and the large, 
round sea-urchins, like a boss upon a shield, 
were fastened here and there on the rock at 
the bottom, putting out from their green, prickly 
spikes transparent tentacles to seek their invisible 
food. Rosy and lilac star-fish clung to the sides ; 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 125 

in some dark nook, perhaps, a liolothure unfolded 
its perfect ferns, a lovely, warm buff color, delicate 
as frost-work ; little forests of coralline moss grew 
up in stillness, gold-colored shells crept about, and 
now and then flashed the silver-darting fins of 
slender minnows. The dimmest recesses were 
haunts of sea-anemones that opened wide their 
starry flowers to the flowing tide, or drew them- 
selves together, and hung in large, half- transparent 
drops, like clusters of some strange, amber-colored 
fruit, along the crevices as the water ebbed away. 
Sometimes we were cruel enough to capture a 
female lobster hiding in a deep cleft, with her 
millions of mottled eggs; or we laughed to see 
the hermit-crabs challenge each other, and come 
out and fight a deadly battle till the stronger 
overcame, and, turning the weaker topsy-turvy, pos- 
sessed himself of his ampler cockle-shell, and scut- 
tled off* with it triumphant. Or, pulling all to- 
gether, we dragged up the long kelps, or devil's- 
aprons; their roots were almost always fastened 
about large, living mussels ; these we unclasped, 
carrying the mussels home to be cooked ; fried in 
crumbs or batter, they were as good as oysters. 
We picked out from the kelp-roots a kind of star- 
fish which we called sea-spider ; the moment we 
touched it an extraordinary process began. One 



126 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

by one it disjointed all its sections, — whether 
from fear or anger we knew not ; but it threw it- 
self away, bit by bit, until nothing was left of it 
save the little, round body whence the legs had 
sprung ! 

With crab and limpet, with grasshopper and 
cricket, we were friends and neighbors, and we 
were never tired of watching the land-spiders that 
possessed the place. Their webs covered every 
window-pane to the lighthouse top, and they re- 
built them as fast as they were swept down. One 
variety lived among the round gray stones on the 
beach, just above high-water mark, and spun no 
webs at all. Large and black, they speckled the 
light stones, swarming in the hot sun ; at the first 
footfall they vanished beneath the pebbles. 

All the cracks in the rocks were draped with 

swinging veils like the window-panes. How often 

have we marvelled at them, after a fog or a heavy 

fall of dew, in the early morning, when every 

slender thread was strung with glittering drops, — 

the whole symmetrical w^eb a wonder of shining 

jewels trembling in the breeze ! Tennyson's 

lines, 

" The cobweb woven across the cannon's throat 
Shall shake its threaded tears in the wind no more," 

always bring back to my mind the memory of 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 127 

those delicate, spangled draperies, more beautiful 
than any mortal loom could weave, that curtained 
the rocks at White Island and " shook their 
threaded tears " in every wind. 

Sometimes we saw the bats wheel through the 
sunnner dusk, and in profoundly silent evenings 
heard, from the lighthouse top, their shrill, small 
cries, their voices sharper and finer than needle- 
points. One day I found one clinging to the un- 
der side of a shutter, — a soft, dun-colored, downy 
lump. I took it in my hand, and in an instant it 
changed to a hideous little demon, and its fierce 
white teeth met in the palm of my hand. So 
much fury in so small a beast I never encountered, 
and I was glad enough to give him his liberty 
without more ado. 

A kind of sandhopper about an inch long, that 
mfested the beach, was a great source of amuse- 
ment. Lifting the stranded sea-weed that marked 
the high-water line, we always startled a gray and 
brown cloud of them from beneath it, leaping 
away, like tiny kangaroos, out of sight. In 
storms these were driven into the house, forcing 
their way through every crack and cranny till they 
strewed the floors, — the sea so encircled us ! Dy- 
ing immediately upon leaving the water from 
which they fled, they turned from a clear brown, 



128 A.UOXG TEE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

or what Mr. Kingsley would call a "pellucid 
gray," to bright brick-color, like a boiled lobster, 
and many a time I have swept them up in ruddy 
heaps ; they looked like bits of coral. 

I remember in the spring kneeling on the 
ground to seek the first blades of grass that 
pricked through the soil, and bringing them into 
the house to study and wonder over. Better than 
a shop full of toys they were to me ! Whence 
came their color 1 How did they draw their 
sweet, refreshing tint from the brown earth, or the 
limpid air, or the white light *? Chemistry was 
not at hand to answer me, and all her wisdom 
would not have dispelled the wonder. Later the 
little scarlet pimpernel charmed me. It seemed 
more than a flower ; it was like a human thing. I 
knew it by its homely name of poor-man's weather- 
glass. It was so much wiser than I, for, when the 
sky was yet without a cloud, softly it clasped its 
small red petals together, folding its golden heart 
in safety from the shower that was sure to come ! 
How could it know so much 1 Here is a question 
science cannot answer. The pimpernel grows 
everywhere about the islands, in every cleft and 
cranny where a suspicion of sustenance for its 
slender root can lodge ; and it is one of the most 
exquisite of flowers, so rich in color, so quaint and 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 129 

dainty in its method of growth. I never knew 
its silent warning fail. I wondered much how 
every flower knew what to do and to be ; why the 
morning-glory didn't forget sometimes, and bear 
a cluster of elder-bloom, or the elder hang out 
pennons of gold and purple like the iris, or the 
golden-rod suddenly blaze out a scarlet plume, the 
color of the pimpernel, was a mystery to my 
childish thought. And why did the sweet wild 
primrose wait till after sunset to unclose its pale 
yellow buds ; why did it unlock its treasure of 
rich perfume to the night alone "? Few flowers 
bloomed for me upon the lonesome rock ; but I 
made the most of all I had, and neither knew of 
nor desired more. Ah, how beautiful they were ! 
Tiny stars of crimson sorrel threaded on their 
long brown stems ; the blackberry blossoms in 
bridal white ; the surprise of the blue-eyed grass ; 
the crowfoot flowers, like drops of yellow gold 
spilt about among the short grass and over the 
moss ; the rich, blue-purple beach-pea, the sweet, 
spiked germander, and the homely, delightful yar- 
row that grows thickly on all the islands. Some- 
times its broad clusters of dull white bloom are 
stained a lovely reddish-purple, as if with th^ 
light of sunset. I never saw it colored so else- 
where. Quantities of slender, wide-spreading 
6* I 



130 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

mustard-bushes grew about the house ; their deh- 
cate flowers were hke fragrant golden clouds. 
Dandelions, buttercups, and clover were not de- 
nied to us ; though we had no daisies nor violets 
nor wild roses, no asters, but gorgeous spikes of 
golden-rod, and wonderful wild morning-glories, 
whose long, pale, ivory buds I used to find in the 
twilight, glimmering among the dark leaves, wait- 
ing for the touch of dawn to unfold and become 
each an exquisite incarnate blush, — the perfect 
color of a South Sea shell. They ran wild, knot- 
ting and twisting about the rocks, and smothering 
the loose boulders in the gorges with lush green 
leaves and pink blossoms. 

Many a summer morning have I crept out of 
the still house before any one was awake, and, 
wrapping myself closely from the chill wind of 
dawn, climbed to the top of the high cliff called 
the Head to watch the sunrise. Pale grew the 
lighthouse flame before the broadening day as, 
nestled in a crevice at the cliff's edge, I watched 
the shadows draw away and morning break. Fac- 
ing the east and south, with all the Atlantic before 
me, w^hat happiness was mine as the deepening rose- 
color flushed the delicate cloudflocks that dajopled 
the sky, where the gulls soared, rosy too, while the 
calm sea blushed beneath. Or perhaps it was a 



AMONG THE JSLES OF SHOALS. 131 

cloudless sunrise with a sky of orange-red, and the 
sea-line silver-blue against it, peaceful as heaven. 
Infinite variety of beauty always awaited me, and 
filled me with an absorbing, unreasoning joy such 
as makes the song-sparrow sing, — a sense of per- 
fect bliss. Coming back in the sunshine, the morn- 
ing-glories would lift up their faces, all awake, to 
my adoring gaze. Like countless rosy trumpets 
sometimes I thought they were, tossed everywhere 
about the rocks, turned up to the sky, or droop- 
ing toward the ground, or looking east, west, 
north, south, in silent loveliness. It seemed as 
if they had gathered the peace of the golden morn- 
ing in their still depths even as my heart had 
gathered it. 

In some of those matchless summer mornings 
when I went out to milk the little dun cow, it was 
hardly possible to go farther than the doorstep, 
for pure wonder, as I looked abroad at the sea 
lying still, like a vast, round mirror, the tide drawn 
away from the rich brown rocks, a sail or two 
asleep in the calm, not a sound abroad except a 
few bird voices; dew lying like jewel-dust sifted 
over everything, — diamond and ruby, sapphire, 
topaz, and amethyst, flashing out of the emer- 
ald deeps of the tufted grass or from the bend- 
ing tops. Looking over to the mainland, I could 



132 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

dimly discern in the level sunshine the depths of 
glowing green woods faintly revealed in the dis- 
tance, fold beyond fold of hill and valley thickly 
clothed with the summer's splendor. But my 
handful of grass was more precious to me than 
miles of green fields, and I was led to consider , 
every blade where there were so few. Not long 
ago I had watched them piercing the ground toward 
the light ; now, how strong in their slender grace 
were these stems, how perfect the poise of the 
heavy heads that waved with such harmony of 
movement in the faintest breeze ! And I noticed 
at mid-day when the dew was dry, where the tall, 
blossoming spears stood in graceful companies 
that, before they grew purple, brown, and ripe,- 
when they began to blossom, they put out first a 
downy ring of pollen in tiny, yellow rays, held by 
an almost invisible thread, which stood out like an 
aureole from each slow-waving head, — a fairy-like 
effect. On Seavey's Island (united to ours by a 
narrow beach covered at high tide with contending 
waves) grew one single root of fern, the only one 
within the circle of my little world. It was safe 
in a deep cleft, but I was in perpetual anxiety lest 
my little cow, going there daily to pasture, should 
leave her cropping of the grass and eat it up some 
day. Poor little cow ! One night she did not 



A3I0NG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 1S3 

come home to be milked as usual, and on going to 
seek her we found she had caught one foot in a 
crevice and twisted her hoof entirely off! That 
was a calamity ; for we were forced to summon our 
neighbors and have her killed on the spot. 

I had a scrap of garden, literally not more than 
a yard square, wherein grew only African mari- 
golds, rich in color as barbaric gold. I knew noth- 
ing of John Keats at that time, — poor Keats, 
*' who told Severn that he thought his intensest 
pleasure in life had been to watch the growth of 
flowers," — but I am sure he never felt their beauty 
more devoutly than the little, half-savage being 
who knelt, like a fire-worshipper, to watch the un- 
folding of those golden disks. When, later, the 
*' brave new world " of poets was opened to me, 
with what power those glowing lines of his went 
straight to my heart, 

" Open afresh your rounds of starry folds. 
Ye ardent marigolds! " 

All flowers had for me such human interest, they 
were so dear and precious, I hardly liked to gather 
them, and when they were withered, I carried them 
all to one place and laid them tenderly together, 
and never liked to pass the spot where they were 
hidden. 

Once or twice every year came the black, lum- 



134 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

bering old "oil-schooner" that brought supplies 
for the lighthouse, and the inspector, who gravely 
examined everything, to see if all was in order. 
He left stacks of clear red and white glass chim- 
nevH for the lamps, and several doe-skins for polish- 
ing the great, silver-lined copper reflectors, large 
bundles of wicks, and various pairs of scissors for 
trimming them, heavy black casks of ill-perfumed 
whale-oil, and other things, which were all stowed in 
the round, dimly -lighted rooms of the tower. Very 
awe-struck, we children alwaj^s crept into corners, 
and whispered and watched the intruders till they 
embarked in their ancient, clumsy vessel, and, 
hoisting their dark, w^eather-stained sails, bore 
slowly aw^ay again. About ten years ago that old 
white lighthouse w^as taken aw^ay, and a new^, per- 
pendicular brick tower built in its place. The 
lantern, with its fifteen lamps, ten golden and five 
red, gave place to Fresnel's pow^erful single burner, 
or, rather, three burners in one, enclosed in its case 
of prisms. The old lighthouse was by fnv the most 
picturesque ; but perhaps the new one is more effec- 
tive, the light being, undoubtedly, more powerful. 

Often, in pleasant days, the head of the family 
sailed away to visit the other islands, sometimes 
taking the children with him, oftener going alone, 
frequently not returning till after dark. The land- 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 135 

ing at White Island is so dangerous that the great- 
est care is requisite, if there is any sea running, to 
get ashore in safety. Two long and very solid tim- 
bers about three feet apart are laid from the boat- 
house to low-water mark, and between those tim- 
bers the boat's bow must be accurately steered ; if 
she goes to the right or the left, woe to her crew 
unless the sea is calm ! Safely lodged in the slip, 
as it is called, she is drawn up into the boat-house 
by a capstan, and fastened securely. The light- 
house gave no ray to the dark rock below it ; send- 
ing its beams flir out to sea, it left us at its foot in 
greater darkness for its lofty light. So when the 
boat was out late, in soft, moonless summer nights, 
I used to light a lantern, and, going down to the 
water's edge, take my station between the timbers 
of the slip, and, with the lantern at my feet, sit 
waiting in the darkness, quite content, knowing 
my little star was watched for, and that the safety 
of the boat depended in a great measure upon it. 
How sweet the summer wind blew, how softly 
plashed the water round me, how refreshing was 
the odor of the sparkling brine ! High above, the 
lighthouse rays streamed out into the humid dark, 
and the cottage windows were ruddy from the glow 
within. I felt so much a part of the Lord's 
universe, I was no more afraid of the dark than the 



136 AMONG TEE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

waves or winds ; but I was glad to hear at last the 
creaking of the mast and the rattling of the row- 
locks as the boat approached ; and, while yet she 
was far off, the lighthouse touched her one large 
sail into sight, so that I knew she was nearing me, 
and shouted, listening for the reply that came so 
blithely back to me over the water. 

Unafraid, too, we watched the summer tempests, 
and listened to the deep, melodious thunder roll- 
ing away over the rain-calmed ocean. The light- 
ning played over the iron rods that ran from the 
lighthouse-top down into the sea. Where it lay on 
the sharp ridgepole of the long, covered walk that 
spanned the gorge, the strange fire ran up the 
spikes that w^ere set at equal distances, and burnt 
like pale flame from their tips. It was fine indeed 
from the lighthouse itself to watch the storm come 
rushing over the sea and ingiilf us in our help- 
lessness. How the rain weltered down over the 
great panes of plate glass, — floods of sweet, fresh 
w^ater that poured off the rocks and mingled with 
the bitter brine. I wondered why the fresh floods 
never made the salt sea any sweeter. Those pale 
flames that we beheld burning from the spikes of 
the lightning-rod, I suppose were identical with the 
St. Elmo's fire that I have since seen described as 
haunting the s]3ars of ships in thunder-storms. 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 137 

And here I am reminded of a story told by some 
gentlemen visiting Appledore sixteen or eighteen 
years ago. They started from Portsmouth for the 
Shoals in a whaleboat, one evening in summer, 
with a native Star-Islander, Richard Randall by 
name, to manage the boat. They had sailed about 
half the distance, when they were surprised at 
seeing a large ball of fire, like a rising moon, roll- 
ing toward them over the sea from the south. 
They watched it eagerly as it bore down upon 
them, and, veering off, went east of them at some 
little distance, and then passed astern, and there, 
of course, they expected to lose sight of it ; but 
while they were marvelling and speculating, it 
altered its course, and suddenly began to near 
them, coming back upon its track against the 
wind and steadily following in their wake. This 
was too much for the native Shoaler. He took 
off his jacket and turned it inside out to exorcise 
the fiend, and lo, the apparition most certainly 
disappeared ! We heard the excited account of 
the strange gentlemen and witnessed the holy hor- 
ror of the boatman on the occasion ; but no one 
could imagine what had set the globe of fire roll- 
ing across the sea. Some one suggested that it 
might be an exhalation, a phosphorescent light, 
from the decaying body of some dead fish ; but in 



138 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

that case it must have been taken in tow by some 
living finny creature, else how could it have sailed 
straight "into the teeth of the wind'"? It was 
never satisfactorily accounted for, and must remain 
a mystery. 

One autumn at White Island our little boat had 
been to Portsmouth for provisions, etc. With the 
spy-glass w^e watched her returning, beating against 
the head wind. The day was bright, but there 
had been a storm at sea, and the breakers rolled 
and roared about us. The process of " beating " 
is so tedious that, though the boat had started in 
the morning, the sun was sending long yellow light 
from the west before it reached the island. There 
was no cessation in those resistless billows that 
rolled from the DeviFs Rock upon the slip ; but 
still the little craft sailed on, striving to reach 
the landing. The hand at the tiller was firm, but 
a huge wave swept suddenly in, swerving the boat 
to the left of the slip, and in a moment she was 
overturned and flung upon the rocks, and her only 
occupant tossed high upon the beach, safe except 
for a few bruises ; but what a moment of terror it 
was for us all, who saw and could not save ! All 
the freight was lost except a roll of iron wire and 
a barrel of walnuts. These were spread on the 
floor of an unoccupied eastern chamber in the cot- 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 139 

tage to dry. And they did dry ; but before they 
were gathered up came a terrible storm from the 
southeast. It raved and tore at lighthouse and 
cottage ; the sea broke into the windows of that 
eastern chamber where the walnuts lay, and washed 
them out till they came dancing down the stairs 
in briny foam ! The sea broke the windows of the 
house several times during our stay at the light- 
house. Everything shook so violently from the 
concussion of the breakers, that dishes on the 
closet shelves fell to the floor, and one member of 
the family was at first always made sea-sick in 
storms, by the tremor and deafening confusion. 
One night when, from the southeast, the very soul 
of chaos seemed to have been let loose upon the 
world, the whole ponderous "walk" (the covered 
bridge that connected the house and lighthouse) 
was carried thundering down the gorge and dragged 
out into the raging sea. 

It was a distressing situation for us, — cut off 
from the precious light that must be kept alive ; 
for the breakers were tearing through the gorge 
so that no living thing could climb across. But 
the tide could not resist the mighty impulse 
that drew it down ; it was forced to obey the still 
voice that bade it ebb ; all swollen and raging and 
towering as it was, slowly and surely, at the ap- 



140 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

pointed time, it sank away from our rock, so that, 
between the billows that still strove to clutch at 
the white, silent, golden-crowned tower, one could 
creep across, and scale the height, and wind up 
the machinery that kept the great clustered light 
revolving till the gray daylight broke to extin- 
guish it. 

I often wondered how it was possible for the sea- 
birds to live through such storms as these. But, 
when one could see at all, the gulls were always 
soaring, in the wildest tumult, and the stormy 
petrels half flying, half swimming in the hollows 
of the waves. 

Would it were possible to describe the beauty 
of the calm that followed such tempests ! The 
long lines of silver foam that streaked the tranquil 
blue, the " tender-curving lines of creamy spray " 
along the shore, the clear-washed sky, the peace- 
ful yellow light, the mellow breakers murmuring 
slumberously ! 

Of all the storms our childish eyes watched 
with delighted awe, one thunder-storm remains 
fixed in my memory. Late in an xA.ugust after- 
noon it rolled its awful clouds to the zenith, and, 
after the tumult had subsided, spread its lightened 
vapors in an under-roof of gray over all the sky. 
Presently this solemn gray lid was lifted at its 



AMOXG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 141 

western edge, and a;i insufferable splendor streamed 
across the world from the sinking sun. The 
whole heaven was in a blaze of scarlet, across 
which sprang a rainbow nnbroken to the topmost 
clouds, " with its seven perfect colors chorded in a 
triumph " against tlie flaming background ; the 
sea answered the sky's rich blush, and the gray 
rocks lay drowned in melancholy purple. I hid 
my face from the glory, — it was too mnch to 
bear. Ever I longed to speak these things that 
made life so sweet, to speak the wind, the cloud, 
the bird's flight, the sea's murmur. A vain long- 
ing ! I might as well have sighed for the mighty 
pencil of Michael Angelo to wield in my impotent 
child's hand. Better to "hush and bless one's 
self with silence " ; bnt ever the wish grew. Fa- 
cing the July sunsets, deep red and golden through 
and through, or watching the summer northern 
lights, — battalions of brilliant streamers advan- 
cing and retreating, shooting upward to the zenith, 
and glowing like fiery veils before the stars ; or 
when the fog-bow spanned the silver mist of 
morning, or the earth and sea lay shimmering in a 
golden haze of noon ; in storm or calm, by day or 
night, the manifold aspects of Nature held me 
and swayed all my thoughts until it was impos- 
sible to be silent an}'- longer, and I was ftiin to 



142 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

mingle my voice with her myriad voices, only as- 
piring to be in accord with the Infinite harmony, 
however feeble and broken the notes might be. 

It has been my good fortune to witness but few 
wrecks at the Shoals. The disasters of which we 
hear faintly from the past were many and dread- 
ful ; but since the building of the lighthouse on 
White Island, and also on Boone Island (which 
seems like a neighbor, though fifteen miles dis- 
tant), the danger of the place is much lessened. 
A resident of Star Island told me of a wreck which 
took place forty-seven years ago, during a heavy 
storm from the eastward. It blew so that all the 
doors in the house opened as fast as they shut 
them, and in the night a vessel drove against 
'' Hog Island Head," which fronts the village on 
Star. She went to pieces utterly. In the morn- 
ing the islanders perceived the beach at Londoners 
heaped with some kind of drift; they could not 
make out what it was, but, as soon as the sea sub- 
sided, went to examine and found a mass of 
oranges and picture-frames, with which the vessel 
had been freighted. Not a soul was saved. " She 
struck with such force that she drove a large 
sjDike out of her forefoot " into a crevice in the 
rock, which was plainly to be seen till a few years 



AMOXG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. U3 

ago. My informant also told me that she remem- 
bered the wreck of the Sagunto, in 1813 ; that the 
beaches were strewn with "almond-nuts " long after; 
and that she picked up cm-iously embroidered vests 
and " w^ork-bags " in all directions along the shores. 
During a storm in 1839, wdiile living at White 
Island, we were startled by the heavy booming of 
guns through the roar of the tempest, — a sound 
that drev/ nearer and nearer, till at last, through a 
sudden break in the mist and spray, we saw the 
heavily rolling hull of a large vessel driving by, to 
her sure destruction, toward the coast. It was as 
if the wind had torn the vapor apart on purpose 
to show us this piteous sight ; and I well remem- 
ber the hand on my shoulder which held me firmly, 
shuddering child that I was, and forced me to look 
in spite of myself What a day of pain it was ! 
how dreadful the sound of those signal-guns, and 
how much more dreadful the certainty, when they 
ceased, that all was over ! We learned afterward 
that it was the brig Pocahontas, homeward bound 
from Spain, and that the vessel and all her crew 
were lost. In later years a few coasters and fish- 
ermen have gone ashore at the islands, generally 
upon the hidden ledges at Duck. Many of these 
have been loaded with lime, — a most perilous 
freight ; for as soon as the water touches it there is 



144 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

a double danger ; and between fire and water there 
is little chance of escape. 

I wish I could recall the graphic language of a 
Star Islander who described to me a wreck of this 
kind. The islanders saw at sunrise, one bitter 
winter day, a schooner ashore among the dreadful 
ledges at Duck Island, and, though the w^ind blew 
half a gale, they took their boats and ran down 
toward her before the northwester. Smoke and 
steam and spray and flame were rising from her 
and about her when they reached the spot. Only 
one man was found alive. From the davits, hang- 
ing head dow^nward, was the lifeless body of a 
fair-haired boy of sixteen or thereabouts. The 
breakers swept him to and fro, and, drawing away, 
left his long yellow hair dripping with the freezing 
brine. The mate's story was that he had gone 
to unfasten the boat which hung at the stern, that 
a sea had struck him, and he had fallen headfore- 
most with his feet entangled in the ropes of the 
davits. He was the only son of his mother, who 
w^as a widow. They carried his body home to that 
most unhappy mother. The vessel was a total 
loss, wath all on board, except the mate. 

One winter night at Appledore when it was 
blowing very hard northwest, with a clear sky, 
we were wakened by a violent knocking at the 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 145 

door. So unaccustomed a sound, at that time of 
night too, was enough to startle us all, and very 
much amazed we were. The door was opened to 
admit four or five shipwrecked men, whose hands, 
feet, and ears were all frozen stiff, — pitiable ob- 
jects they were indeed. Their vessel had struck 
full on York Ledge, a rock lying off the coast 
of Maine far east of us, and they had taken to 
the boat and strove to make a landing on the 
coast ; but the wind blew off shore so fiercely 
they failed in their attempt, their hands became 
useless from the cold, they dropped their oars, and, 
half steering with one of the seats of the boat, 
managed to reach Appledore, more dead than 
alive. They were obliged to remain there several 
days before finding an opportunity of going on 
shore, the gale was so furious. Next morning, in the 
glare of the winter sunshine, we saw their vessel, 
still with all sail set, standing upright upon the 
ledge, — a white column looming far away. One 
of the most hideous experiences I have heard be- 
fell a young Norwegian now living at the Shoals. 
He and a young companion came out from Ports- 
mouth to set their trawl, in the winter fishing, 
two years ago. Before they reached the island, 
came a sudden squall of wind and snow, chilling 
and blinding. In a few moments they knew not 
7 J 



146 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

where they were, and the wind continued to sweep 
them away. Presently they found themselves 
under the lee of White Island Head ; they threw 
out the road-lines of their trawl, in desperate hope 
that they might hold the boat till the squall 
abated. The keepers at the lighthouse saw the 
poor fellows, but were powerless to help them. 
Alas ! the road-lines soon broke, and the little boat 
was swept off again, they knew not whither. 
Night came down upon them, tossed on that ter- 
rible black sea ; the snow ceased, the clouds flew 
before the deadly cold northwest wind, the ther- 
mometer sank below zero. One of the men died 
before morning ; the other, alone with the dead 
man, was still driven on and on before the pitiless 
gale. He had no cap nor mittens ; had lost both. 
He bailed the boat incessantly, for the sea broke 
over him the livelong time. He told me the story 
himself He looked down at the awful face of his 
dead friend and thought " how soon he should be 
like him " ; but still he never ceased bailing, — it 
was all he could do. Before night he passed Cape 
Cod and knew it as he rushed by. Another un- 
speakably awful night, and the gale abated no whit. 
Next morning he was almost gone from cold, fa- 
tigue, and hunger. His eyes were so swollen he 
could hardly see ; but afar off, shining whiter than 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 147 

silver in the sun, the sails of a large schooner ap- 
peared at the edge of the fearful wilderness. He 
managed to hoist a bit of old canvas on an oar. 
He was then not far from Holmes' Hole, nearly two 
hundred miles from the Shoals ! The schooner saw 
it and bore down for him, but the sea was running 
so high that he expected to be sw^amped every 
instant. As she swept past, they threw from the 
deck a rope with a loop at the end, tied with a 
bow-line knot that would not slip. It caught him 
over the head, and clutching it at his throat wuth 
both hands, in an instant he found himself in the 
sea among the ice-cold, furioas waves, drawn toward 
the vessel with all the strength of her crew. Just 
before he emerged, he heard the captain shout, 
" We 've lost him ! " Ah the bitter moment ! 
For a horrible fear struck through him that they 
might lose their hold an instant on the rope, and 
then he knew it would be all over. But they 
saved him. The boat with the dead man in it, all 
alone, went tossing, heaven knows where. 

The great equinoctial gale of September 8, 1869, 
was very severe at the islands. One schooner went 
ashore on Cannon Point at Appledore, and was a 
complete wreck, though no lives w^ere lost. She 
was lying in " The Roads," between Star and Ap- 
pledore, safely moored, her crew supposed ; but she 



148 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

dragged moorings, ancliors, everything with which 
they strove to save her, and crashed on the rocks, 
breaking up hke an eggshelL Various buildings 
were blowai down ; windows at Appledore w^ere 
blown in, in some cases sash and all, in others the 
glass w^as smashed as if the wind had thrust an 
arm through. 

At about seven o'clock in the evening a great 
copper-colored arch spanned the black sky from 
•west to east. The gale w^as then at its height. After 
that lurid bow dissolved, flying northward in wild, 
scattered fragments, the wind abated, and we be- 
gan to take breath again. A man at Star, on the 
edge of the storm, rowed out in his dory to make 
more secure a larger boat moored at a little dis- 
tance. Down came the hurricane and caught him, 
and whirled him away like a dead leaf on the sur- 
face of the sea. He gave himself up for lost, of 
course; so did his friends. But he fastened himself 
with ropes to the inside of the boat, and, tossing 
from billow to billow, bailed for dear life the whole 
night long. Toward morning, the wind lulling very 
considerably, he was carried along the coast of 
Maine, and landed in York, a short distance from 
his father's home, and quietly walked into the 
house and joined the family at breakfast ; then 
took the cars for Portsmouth, and astounded the 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 149 

whole Shoals settlement by appearing in the 
steamer Appledore in time for dinner. Everybody 
supposed him, without a shadow of doubt, to be at 
the bottom of the sea. 

Boone Island is the forlornest place that can be 
imagined. The Isles of Shoals, barren as they 
are, seem like Gardens of Eden in comparison. I 
chanced to hear last summer of a person who had 
been born and brought up there ; he described 
the loneliness as something absolutely fearful, and 
declared it had pursued him all through his life. 
He lived there till fourteen or fifteen years old, 
when his family moved to York. While living 
on the island he discovered some human remains 
which had lain there thirty years. A carpenter 
and his assistants, having finished some building, 
were capsized in getting off*, and all were drowned, 
except the master. One body floated to Plum 
Island at the mouth of the Merrimack ; the others 
the master secured, made a box for them, — all 
alone the while, — and buried them in a cleft and 
covered them with stones. These stones the sea 
washed away, and, thirty years after they were 
buried, the boy found the bones, which were re- 
moved to York and there buried again. It was 
on board a steamer bound to Bangor, that the man 
told his story. Boone Island Light was shining 



150 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

in the distance. He spoke with bitterness of his 
life in that terrible solitude, and of " the loneliness 
which had pursued him ever since." All his rel- 
atives were dead, he said, and he had no human 
tie in the wide world except his wife. He ended 
by anathematizing all islands, and, vanishing into 
the darkness, was not to be found again ; nor did 
his name or any trace of him transpire, though 
he was sought for in the morning all about the 
vessel. 

One of the most shocking stories of shipwreck 
I remember to have heard is that of the Notting- 
ham Galley, wrecked on this island in the year 
1710. There is a narrative of this shipwreck ex- 
isting, written by " John Deane, then commander 
of said Galley, but for many years after his Majes- 
ty's consul for the ports of Flanders, residing at 
Ostend," printed in 1762. The ship, of one hun- 
dred and twenty tons, carrying ten guns, with a 
crew of fourteen men, loaded partly in England and 
partly in Ireland, and sailed for Boston on the 25th 
of September, 1710. She made land on the 11th 
of December, and was wrecked on that fatal rock. 
At first the unhappy crew "treated each other 
with kindness and condolence, and prayed to God 
for relief" The only things saved from the wTCck 
were a bit of canvas and half a cheese. The men 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 151 

'made a triangular tent of the bit of canvas, and 
all lay close together beneath it, sideways ; none 
could turn without the general concurrence : they 
turned once in two hours upon public notice. 
They had no fire, and lived upon kelp and rock- 
weed, and mussels, three a day to a man. Star- 
vation and suffering soon produced a curious loss 
of memory. The fourth day the cook died. When 
they had been there upwards of a week, they saw 
three sails in the southwest, but no boat came 
near them. They built a rude boat of such mate- 
rials as they could gather from the wreck, but she 
was lost in launching. One of the men, a Swede, 
is particularly mentioned ; he seems to have been 
full of energy ; with help from the others he built 
a raft ; in launching this they overset it. Again 
they saw a sail, this time coming out from the 
Piscataqua River ; it was soon out of sight. The 
Swede was determined to make an effort to reach 
the shore, and persuaded another man to make 
the attempt with him. At sunset they were seen 
half-way to the land; the raft was found on shore 
with the body of one man ; the Swede was never 
seen more. A hide was thrown on the rocks at 
Boone Island by the sea ; this the poor sailors ate 
raw, minced. About the end of December the 
carpenter died, and, driven to madness by hunger, 



152 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

they devoured the flesh of their dead comrade. 
The captain, being the strongest of the party, 
dragged the body away and hid it, and dealt small 
portions of it daily to the men. Innnediately 
their dispositions underwent a horrible change. 
They became fierce and reckless, and were the most 
pitiable objects of despair, when, on January 4th, 
1711, they were discovered and taken off. It was 
evening when they entered the Piscataqua River, 
and eight o'clock when they landed. Discovering 
a house through the darkness, the master rushed 
into it, frightening the gentlewoman and children 
desperately, and, making his way to the kitchen, 
snatched the pot wherein some food was cooking 
off the fire, and began to eat voraciously. This 
old record mentions John Plaisted Mid John Went- 
worth as being most " forward in benevolence " to 
these poor fellows. 

When visiting the island for the first time, a 
few years ago, I was shown the shallow gorge 
where the unfortunates tried to shelter themselves. 
It was the serenest of summer days j everything 
smiled and shone as I stood looking down into that 
rocky hollow. Near by the lighthouse sprang — 
a splendid piece of masonry — over a hundred 
feet into the air, to hold its warning aloft. About 
its base some gentle thought had caused morning- 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 153 

glories to climb and unfold their violet, white, and 
rosy bells against the smooth, dark stone. I 
thought I had never seen flowers so beautiful. 
There was hardly a handful of grass on the island, 
hardly soil enough to hold a root ; therefore it 
seemed the more wonderful to behold this lovely 
apparition. With my mind full of the story of 
the Nottingham Galley, I looked at the delicate 
bells, the cool green leaves, the whole airy grace 
of the wandering vines, and it was as if a hand 
Avere stretched out to pluck me away from the 
awful questions never to be answered this side the 
grave, that pressed so heavily w^hde 1 thought how 
poor humanity had here suffered the utmost misery 
that it is possible to endure. 

The aspect of this island from the Shoals is 
very striking, so lonely it lies on the eastern hori- 
zon, its tall lighthouse like a slender column against 
the sky. It is easily mistaken for the smoke- 
stack of a steamer by unaccustomed eyes, and 
sometimes the watcher most familiar with its ap- 
pearance can hardW distinguish it from the distant 
white sails that steal by it, to and fro. Sometimes 
it looms colossal in the mirage of summer ; in 
winter it lies blurred and ghostly at the edge of 
chilly sea and pallid sky. In the sad, strange 

light of winter sunsets, its faithful star blazes sud- 
7# 



154 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

denly from the darkening east, and sends a friendly 
ray across to its neighbor at the Shoals, waiting as 
it also waits, ice-bound, storm-swept, and solitary, 
for gentler days to come. And " winter's rains 
and ruins " have an end at last. 

In the latter part of February, after ten days 
perhaps of the northwester, bringing across to the 
islands all the chill of the snow-covered hills of 
the continent, some happy evening it dies into a 
reasonable breeze, and, while the sun sets, you 
climb the snowy height, and sweep with your eyes 
the whole circle of the horizon, w^ith nothing to 
impede the view. Ah ! how sad it looks in the 
dying light ! Star Island close by with its silent 
little village and the sails of belated fishing-boats 
hurrying in over the dark water to the moorings ; 
White Island afar off " kindling its great red star" ; 
on every side the long, bleached points of granite 
stretching out into the sea, so cold and bleak ; the 
line of coast, sad purple ; and the few schooners 
leaden and gray in the distance. Yet there is a 
hopeful glow where the sun went down, suggestive 
of the spring ; and before the ruddy sweetness of 
the western sky the melancholy east is flushed 
with violet, and up into the delicious color rolls a 
gradual moon, mellow and golden as in harvest- 
time, while high above her the great star Jupiter 



AMOXG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 155 

begins to glitter clear. On such an evening some 
subtle influence of the coming spring steals to 
the heart, and eyes that have watched the winter 
skies so patiently grow wistful with the thought 
of summer days to come. On shore in these last 
weeks of winter one becomes aware, by various 
delicate tokens, of the beautiful change at hand, 
— by the deepening of the golden willow wands 
into a more living color, and by their silvery buds, 
which in favored spots burst the brown sheaths ; 
by the reddening of bare maple-trees, as if with 
promise of future crimson flowers ; by the sweet 
cry of the returning bluebird ; by the alders at the 
river's edge. If the season is mild, the catkins 
begin to unwind their tawny tresses in the first 
weeks of March. But here are no trees, and no 
bluebirds come till April. Perhaps some day the 
delightful clangor of the wild geese is heard, and 
looking upward, lo ! the long, floating ribbon 
streaming northward across the sky. What joy 
they bring to hearts so weary with waiting ! 
Truly a wondrous content is shaken down with 
their wild clamors out of the cloudy heights, and 
a courage and vigor lurk in these strong voices 
that touch the listener with something better 
than gladness, while he traces eagerly the waver- 
ing lines that seek the north with steady, measured 
£ight. 



156 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

Gradually the bitter winds abate; early in March 
the first flocks of crows arrive, and they soar finely 
above the coves, and perch on the flukes of 
stranded anchors or the tops of kellock-sticks that 
lie about the water's edge. They are most wel- 
come, for they are never seen in winter ; and 
pleasant it is to watch them beating their black, 
ragged pinions in the blue, while the gulls swim 
on beyond them serenely, shining still whiter for 
their sable color. No other birds come till about 
the 27th of March, and then all at once the isl- 
ands are alive with song-sparrows, and these sing 
from morning till night so beautifully that dull 
and weary indeed must be the mortal who can re- 
sist the charm of their fresh music. There is a 
matchless sweetness and good cheer in this brave 
bird. The nightingale singing with its breast 
against a thorn may be divine ; yet would I turn 
away from its tender melody to listen to the 
fresh, cheerful, healthy song of this dauntless and 
happy little creature. They come in flocks to be 
fed every morning the whole summer long, tame 
and charming, with their warm brown and gray 
feathers, striped and freaked with wood-color, and 
little brown knots at each pretty throat ! They 
build their nests, and remain till the snow falls ; fre- 
quently they remain all winter; sometimes they 



AMOXG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 157 

come into the house for shelter ; once one fluttered 
in and entered the canaries' cage voluntarily, and 
stayed there singing like a voice from heaven all 
winter. Robins and blackbirds appear with the 
sparrows ; a few blackbirds build and remain ; the 
robins, finding no trees, flit across to the mainland. 
Yellow-birds and kingbirds occasionally build here, 
but very rarely. By the first of April the snow is 
gone, and our bit of earth is free from that dead 
white mask. How lovely then the gentle neutral 
tints of tawny intervals of dead grass and brown 
bushes and varying stone appear, set in the living 
sea ! There is hardly a square foot of the bare 
rock that is n 't precious for its soft coloring ; and 
freshly beautiful are the uncovered lichens that 
with patient fingering have ornamented the 
rough surfaces with their wonderful embroideries. 
They flourish with the greatest vigor by the sea ; 
whole houses at Star used to be covered with the 
orange-colored variety, and I have noticed the 
same thing in the pretty fishing village of Nev - 
castle and on some of the old buildings by the 
river-side in sleepy Portsmouth city. Tlirougii 
April the weather softens daily, and by the 20th 
come gray, quiet days with mild northeast wind ; 
in the hollows the grass has greened, and nov/ the 
gentle color seems to brim over and spread out 



158 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

upon the gTound in foint and fainter gradations. 
A refreshing odor springs from the moist earth, 
from the short, sweet turf which the cattle crop so 
gladly, — a musky fragrance unlike that of inland 
pastures ; and with this is mingled the pure sea- 
breeze, — a most reviving combination. The turfy 
gorges, boulder-strewn and still, remind one of 
Alexander Smith's descriptions of his summer in 
Skye, of those quiet, lonely glens, — just such a 
grassy carpet w\as spread in their hollows. By the 
23d of April come the first sw^allow and flocks of 
martins, golden- winged and downy woodpeckers, 
the tiny, ruby-crowned wren, and troops of many 
other kinds of birds ; kingfishers that perch on 
stranded kellocks, little nuthatches that peck 
among the shingles for hidden spiders, and glad- 
den the morning with sweet, quaint cries, so busy 
and bright and friendly ! All these tarry only 
awhile in their passage to the mainland. 

But though the birds come and the sky has re- 
lented and grown tender with its melting clouds, 
the weather in New England has a fashion of 
leaping back into midwinter in the space of an 
hour, and all at once comes half a hurricane from 
the northwest, charged with the breath of all the 
remaining snow-heaps on the far mountain 
ranges, — a ''white-sea roarin' wind" that takes 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 159 

you back to January. In the afternoon, through 
the cold, transparent heaven, a pale half- moon 
glides slowly over; there is a splendor of wild 
clouds at sunset, dusk heaps with scarlet fringes, 
scattered flecks of flame in a clear crimson air 
above the fallen sun; then cold moonlight over 
the black sea, with the flash and gleam of white 
waves the whole night long. 

But the potent spirit of the spring triumphs at 
last. When the sun in its journey north passes a 
certain group of lofty pine-trees standing out dis- 
tinctly against the sky on Breakfast Hill in Green- 
land, New Hampshire, which lies midway in the 
coast line, then the Shoalers are happy in the 
conviction that there will be " settled weather " ; 
and they put no trust in any relenting of the 
elements before that time. After this there soon 
come days when to be alive is quite enough joy, — 
days w^hen it is bliss only to watch and feel how 

" God renews 
His ancient rapture," — 

days when the sea lies, colored like a turquoise, 
blue and still, and from the south a band of warm, 
gray-purple haze steals down on the horizon like 
an encircling arm about the happy world. The 
lightest film encroaches upon the sea, only made 
perceptible by the shimmering of far-off" sails. A 



160 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

kind of bloom, inexpressibly lovely, softens over 
the white canvas of nearer vessels, like a delicate 
veil. There is a fascination in the motion of 
these slender schooners, a wondrous grace, as they 
glide before a gentle wind, slowly bowing, bending, 
turning, with curving canvas just filled with the 
breeze, and shadows falling soft from sail to sail. 
They are all so picturesque, so suggestive, from 
the small, tanned spritsail some young islander 
spreads to flit to and fro among the rocks and 
ledges, to the stately column of canvas that bears 
the great ship round the world. The variety of 
their aspects is endless and ever beautiful, whether 
you watch them from the lighthouse-top, dream- 
ing afar on the horizon, or at the water's edge ; 
whether they are drowned in the flood of sun- 
shine on the waves, or glide darkly through the 
track of the moonlight, or fly tow\ard you full of 
promise, wing and wing, like some magnificent 
bird, or steal aw\ay reddening in the sunset as if to 

" Sink with all you love below the verge." 
I know nothing sadder than their aspect in the 
light of the winter sunsets, as they vanish in 
the cold east, blushing for a fleeting moment, 
sweetly, faintly, under the last touch of the drop- 
ping day. To a child's imagination they are all 
full of charm and of mystery, freighted with 



AMONG TUE ISLES OF SHOALS. 161 

heuvenlj dreams. " The thoughts of youth are 
long, long thoughts," and the watching of the 
sails filled the lonely, lovely summer days of one 
young Shoaler with joy enough and to spare. 
How many pictures linger in my mind, — splendid, 
stately apparitions of full-rigged, slender schoon- 
ers, passing very near early in the breezy mornings 
of spring, every inch of canvas in a blaze of white 
light, and the whole vessel alive from keel to top- 
mast. And well I remember on soft May evenings 
how they came dropping down from Cape Ann, 
while the sunset, streaming through low bars of 
cloud, just touched them with pale gold, and made 
them half luminous and altogether lovely ; and 
how the fog clung in silver strips to the dark, 
wet sails of vessels lying becalmed when all the 
air about was clear and free from mist ; how the 
mackerel fleet surrounded the islands, five hun- 
dred craft sometimes between the islands and the 
coast, so that one might almost walk on shore 
from deck to deck. It was wonderful to wake on 
some midsummer morning and find the sea gray- 
green, like translucent chrysoprase, and the some- 
what stormy sunrise painting the sails bright 
flame-color as they flew before the warm, wild wind 
that blew strongly from the south. At night, 
sometimes, in a glory of moonlight, a vessel passed 

K 



162 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

close in with all sail set, and only just air enough 
to fill the canvas, enough murmur from the full 
tide to drown the sound of her movement, — a 
beautiful ghost stealing softly by, and passing in 
mysterious light beyond the glimmering headland 
out of sight. Here was suggestion enough for 
a night full of visions ! Then the scudding of 
sails before a storm, — how they came rushing 
in from the far, dim sea-line, racing by to Ports- 
mouth Harbor, close-reefed, or under darkened 
mainsail and jib only, leaping over the long swell, 
and plunging their sharp bow^sprits into a cloud 
of snowy spray at every leap ! Then wdien the 
storm had spent itself, how beautiful to see them 
stealing tranquilly forth from the river's mouth, 
flocking seaward again, shining w^hite in the peace- 
ful morning sunshine ! Watching them in all 
their endless variety, coming and going, dreaming, 
drifting, or flying, many a time these quaint old 
rhymes occurred to me : — 

" Ships, ships, I will descrie you 

Amidst the main, 
I will come and try you 
What yon are protecting, 
And projecting, 

What 's your end and aim ? 
Some go abroad for merchandise and trading, 
Another stays to keep his country from invading, 
A third is coming home with rich and wealthy lading. 

Halloo! my faucie, whither wilt thou go?" 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 1G3 

As the winter is doubly hard, so are the gentler 
seasons doubly sweet and delightful, when one is 
shut out with them, as it were, and forced to ob- 
serve all their changes and peculiarities, with so 
few human interests to interrupt one's intercourse 
with nature. The rainy days in May at the Isles 
of Shoals have seemed to me more lovely than the 
sunshine in Paradise could be, so charming it was 
to walk in the warm showers over our island, and 
note all the mosses and lichens drenched and 
bright with the moisture, thick, sweet buds on the 
bayberry bushes, rich green leaves unfolding here 
and there among the tangled vines, and bright 
anemones growing uj) between. The lovely eye- 
bright glimmers everywhere. The rain, if it con- 
tinues for several days, bleaches the sea-weed about 
the shores to a lighter and more golden brown, 
the sea is gray, and the sky lowers ; but all these 
neutral tints are gentle and refreshing. The 
coasters rock lazily on the long swell toward Cape 
Ann, dim through low-hanging clouds ; clearly the 
sandpipers call, and always the song-sparrows 
freshly surprise you with their outburst of cheer- 
ful music. In the last weeks of May comes a 
period of balmy days, with a gentle, incessant 
southwest wind, the sea a wonderful gray-blue, 
with the faint, impalpable haze lying over sails, isl- 



164 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

ands, sea, and coast. A brooding warmth is every- 
where. The sky is cloudless, but opaque, — a 
kind of milky efifect in the atmosphere, through 
which the sun is seen as through smoked glass, 
and long before it sets one can bear to look at the 
crimson ball slow sinking in the rich, red west ; 
and the moon is like copper, throwing no light on 
the water. The islanders call this a " smoky 
sou'wester." Now come delicious twilights, with 
silence broken only by mysterious murmurs from 
the waves, and sweet, full cries from the sand- 
pipers fluttering about their nests on the margin 
of the beaches, — tender, happy notes that thrill 
the balmy air, and echo softly about the silent, 
moonlit coves. Sails in this twilight atmosphere 
gather the dusk within their folds ; if the warm 
wind is blowing softly, there is enchantment in 
the sound of the lazily-flapping canvas and in the 
long creak of the mast. A human voice borne 
through this breathing wind comes like a waft of 
music faintly heard across the water. The morn- 
ings now are exquisite, the delicate flush of the 
sunrise through this beautiful haze is indescribable. 
The island is indeed like 

" A precious stone set in the silver sea," 

SO freshly green, so flower-strewn and fragrant, so 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 1G5 

musical with birds, and with the continual caress- 
ing of summer waves. Now and then a bobolink 
pays us a flying visit, and, tilting on a blackberry 
spray, pours out his intoxicating song; some 
morning is heard the fairy bugling of an oriole ; 
a scarlet tanager honors the place with half a day's 
sojourn, to be the wonder of all eyes ; but com- 
monly the swallows hold it in undisputed posses- 
sion. The air is woven through and through with 
the gleam of their burnished wings and their clear, 
happy cries. They are so tame, knowing how 
w^ell they are beloved, that they gather on the 
window-sills, twittering and fluttering, gay and 
graceful, turning their heads this way and that, 
eying you askance without a trace of fear. All 
day they build their nests about the eaves, nor 
heed how loving eyes do watch their charming 
toil. Walking abroad in these pleasant evenings, 
many a little sparrow's nest one finds low down in 
the bayberry-bushes, — smooth, brown cups of wo- 
ven grass, wherein lie the five speckled eggs, each 
full of silent music, each dumb miracle waiting for 
the finger of God to wake, to be alive, to drink the 
sunshine and the breeze, to fill the air with bliss- 
ful sound. At the water's edge one finds the 
long ledges covered with barnacles, and from each 
rough shell a tiny, brown, filmy hand is thrust out, 



1G6 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

opening and shutting in gladness beneath the 
coming tide, feeling the freshness of the flowing 
water. The shore teems with life in manifold 
forms. As the darkness gathers, the ripples begin 
to break in pale flame against the rocks ; if the 
tide is low enough, it is charming to steal down 
in the shadow, and, drawing aside the curtain of 
coarse sea-weed that drapes the face of some 
smooth rock, to write on the surface beneath : 
the strange fire follows your finger ; and there is 
your name in weird flame, all alive, quivering and 
trembling, and finally fading and disappearing. 
In a still pool you drop a stone or touch the 
water with your hand : instantly a thousand stars 
break out and burn and vanish in a moment ! It 
used to be a pleasant thing to bring a piece of 
drift-wood, w^ater-soaked, and shaggy with fine sea- 
weed, up from the shore, and from some dark 
corner suddenly sweep my hand across it : a sheet 
of white flame followed, startling the beholder. 

June is of course the most delightful month 
here, everything is yet so fresh ; later the hot 
sun dries and scorches the thin soil, and par- 
tially destroys the little vegetation which finds 
room upon the island. But through this month 
the ground is beautiful with starry, purple stone- 
wort ; like little suns the blossoms of the lion's- 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 1G7 

foot shine in the thinnest of the soil ; herb-robert 
blossoms ; the slender arenaria steals up among 
the bushes, lifting a little white flower to the 
sun ; here and there the sorrel lies in crimson 
stains ; in wet places sturdy clumps of fern 
unroll their golden green with splendid vigor of 
growth ; sundew and partridge-berry creep at 
their feet ; and from the swamp the rushes rise in 
ranks, like a faint, green vapor, slowly, day by day. 
The few wild-cherry bushes have each its inevi- 
table caterpillars' nest ; one can but wonder how 
caterpillars and canker-worms find their way across 
the water. The presence of green snakes on these 
rocks may be explained by their having been found 
coiled on a piece of drift-wood many miles out at 
sea. Bees find their way out from the land in 
companies, seeking the white clover-blossoms that 
rise in cool, creamy, fragrant globes through the 
dark leaves and grass. The clover here is pecul- 
iarly rich. Many varieties of butterflies abound, 
the handsome moth of the American silkworm 
among them. One night in June, at sunset, we 
were kindling the lamps in the lighthouse, and 
because it was so mild and still outside, the little 
iron door of the lantern was left open. No breeze 
came in to stir the flame that quivered in the 
centre of each shining reflector, but presently 



168 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

glided through the door the pale-green, exquisite 
Luna moth, with its wonderful crescents, its lines 
of velvet brown, and long under wings drawn out 
like the tail of a swallow. It sailed slowly round 
and round the dome above the lamps at first, but 
soon became agitated, and would have dashed itself 
against the flames but tliat I caught it. What a 
marvel it was ! I never dreamed of the existence 
of so beautiful a creature. Titania herself could 
not have been more interesting to me. 

In the quiet little coves troops of butterflies are 
often seen, anchored for the night, clinging to the 
thistle-blossoms to be safe from assailing winds. 
Crickets are never heard here till after the 1st of 
August. On the mainland they begin, about the 
28th of May, a sad and gentle autumnal undertone, 
which from that time accompanies the jubilant 
chorus of summer in a gradual crescendo, till 
finally the da^^s pass on to no other music save 
their sweet, melancholy chirrup. In August comes 
the ruby-throated humming-bird, and several pairs 
flutter about the little gardens for weeks. By the 
1st of July the wild roses blossom, and every bit 
of swampy ground is alive with the waving flags 
of the iris, each flower of which is full of exquisite 
variety of tint and shade of gold and violet. All 
over the island patches of it diversify the surface. 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 1G9 

set like amethysts in the rich greens and browns 
of turf and mossy spaces. Through the tangle of 
leaves and grasses the spikes of golden-rod make 
their way upward slowly day by day, to be ready 
at the first beckoning of Autumn's finger to light 
their torches and join the fair procession ; the 
green hollows are filled with blossoming elder, 
white as a lake of milk ; the pimpernel is awake ; 
and the heavy, stout stalks of the mulleins uprear 
their woolly buds, that soon will break into squares 
of pallid gold. The world is at high tide of de- 
light. Along the coast-line the mirage races in 
flowing undulations of heat, changing the hill 
ranges into a solid wall, to dissolve them, and again 
reunite them into clusters of gigantic towers and 
battlements ; trees, spires, chimneys, lighthouses 
become roofs and minarets and domes of some 
stately city of the clouds, and these melt in their 
turn, and the whole coast shrinks away to the 
merest line on the horizon immeasurably removed. 
Each of these changes, and the various aspects of 
their little world, are of inestimable value to the 
lonely children living always in that solitude. 
Nothing is too slight to be precious : the flashing 
of an oar-blade in the morning light ; the twinkling 
of a gull's wings afar off, like a star in the yellow 
sunshine of the drowsy summer afternoon ; the 



170 AMONG THE JSLES OF SHOALS. 

water-spout waltzing away before the wild wind 
that cleaves the sea from the advancing thunder- 
cloud ; the distant showers that march about the 
horizon, trailing their dusky fringes of falling rain 
over sea and land ; every phase of the great thun- 
der-storms that make glorious the weeks of July 
and August, from the first floating film of cloud 
that rises in the sky till the scattered fragments 
of the storm stream eastward to form a background 
for the rainbow,' — all these things are of the 
utmost importance to dwellers at the Isles of 
Shoals. There is something especially delightful 
in the perfumes which stream across the sea after 
showers, like a heavenly greeting from the land : 
scents of hay and of clover, spice of pine woods, 
balm of flowers come floating over the cool waves 
on the wings of the west wind, and touch one like 
a breath from Paradise. Few sounds from the 
shore reach the islands ; the booming of guns is 
audible, and sometimes, when the wind is west, the 
air is pierced with distant car-whistles, so very re- 
mote, however, that they are hardly to be recog- 
nized except by a practised ear. 

There is a superstition among the islanders that 
Philip Babb, or some evil-minded descendant of his, 
still haunts Appledore ; and no consideration would 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 171 

induce the more timid to walk alone after dark 
over a certain shingly beach on that island, at the 
top of a cove bearing Babb's name, — for there the 
uneasy spirit is oftenest seen. He is supposed to 
have been so desperately wicked when alive that 
there is no rest for him in his grave. His dress is 
a coarse, striped butcher's frock, with a leather 
belt, to which is attached a sheath containing a 
ghostly knife, sharp and glittering, which it is his 
delight to brandish in the face of terrified human- 
ity. One of the Shoalers is perfectly certain that 
he and Babb have met, and he shudders with real 
horror, recalling the meeting. This is his story. 
It was after sunset (of course), and he was coming 
round the corner of a work-shop, w^hen he saw a 
wild and dreadful figure advancing toward him ; 
his first thought was that some one wished to 
make him the victim of a practical joke, and he 
called out something to the effect that he "wasn't 
afraid " ; but the thing came near with ghastly 
face and hollow eyes, and, assuming a fiendish 
expression, took out the knife from its belt and 
flourished it in the face of the Shoaler, who fled to 
the house and entered breathless, calling for the 
person whom he supposed had tried to frighten 
him. That person was quietly eating his supper ; 
and when the poor fellow saw him he was so much 



172 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

agitated that he nearly fainted, and his belief m 
Babb was fixed more firmly than ever. One spring 
night some one was sitting on the broad piazza at 
sunset ; it v/as calm and mild ; the sea murmured 
a little ; birds twittered softly ; there was hardly a 
•waft of wind in the still atmosphere. Glancing 
toward Babb's Cove, he saw a figure slowly cross- 
ing the shingle to the path which led to the house. 
After watching it a moment he called to it, but 
there was no reply; again he called, still no an- 
swer ; but the dark figure came slowly on ; and 
then he reflected that he had heard no step on the 
loose shingle that was wont to give back every foot- 
fall, and, somewhat puzzled, he slowly descended 
the steps of the piazza and went to meet it. It 
w^as not so dark but that he could see the face and 
recognize the butcher's frock and leather belt of 
Babb, but he was not prepared for the devilish ex- 
pression of malice in that hollow face, and, spite of 
his prosaic turn of mind, he was chilled to the mar- 
row at the sight. The white stripes in the frock 
gleamed like phosphorescent light, so did the awful 
e3'es. Again he called aloud, ''Who are you] 
What do you w^anf?" and still advanced, when 
suddenly the shape grew indistinct, first thick and 
cloudy, then thin, dissolving quite awa}'", and, much 
amazed, he turned and went back to the house, yer- 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 173 

plexed and thoroughly dissatisfied. These tales I 
tell as they were told to me. _J_never saw Babb, 
nor ever could, I think. ' The whole Babb ftxmily 
are buried in the valley of Appledore where the 
houses stand, and till this year a bowling-alley 
stood upon the spot, and all the balls rolled over 
the bones of all the Babbs ; that may have been 
one reason why the head of the family was so rest- 
less ; since the last equinoctial gale blew the build- 
ing down, perhaps he may rest more peacefully. 
Babb's is, I believe, the only real ghost that haunts 
the islands ; though in the loft at the parsonage on 
Star (a mere creep-hole under the eaves, unattain- 
able by any steps or ladder) there is, in windy 
weather, the most extraordinary combination of 
sounds, as if two bluff old fellows were swearing at 
each other, gruffly, harshly, continually, with a 
perseverance worthy of a better cause. Really, it 
is a most disagreeable racket ! A lean, brown, hol- 
low-eyed old woman from Star used to tell how her 
daughter-in-law died, in a way that took the color 
out of childish cheeks to hear ; for the dying woman 
thought the ghosts were scratching for her out- 
side, against the house. " ' Ma'y Hahner ' " (Mary 
Hannah), " she said to me, a whisperin', says 
she, 'Who's that scratching, tearing the house 
down underneath the window 1 ' ' No, it ain't 



174 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

nothin',' says I ; ' Ma'y Hahner, there ain't nobody 
a tearin' the house down underneath the winder.' 
* Yes, yes, there is/ says she, ' there is ! I hear 
'em scratching, scratching, tearing the house down 
underneath the winder ! ' And then I know'd 
Ma'y Hahner was goin' to die, and so she did afore 
mornin'." 

There is a superstition here and along the coast 
to this effect. A man gathering drift-wood or 
whatever it may be, sees a spade stuck in the 
ground as if inviting him to dig. He is n't quite 
ready, goes and empties his basket first, then 
comes back to investigate, and lo ! there 's nothing 
there, and he is tormented the rest of his hfe 
w4th tlie thought that probably untold wealth lay 
beneath that spade, which he might have possessed 
had he only been wise enough to seize the treasure 
when it offered itself. A certain man named 
William Mace, living at Star, long, long ago, swore 
that he had had this experience ; and there 's a dim 
tradition that another person, seeing the spade, 
passed by about his business, but hastening back, 
arrived just in time to see the last of the sinking 
tool, and to perceive also a golden flat-iron disap- 
pearing into the earth. This he seized, but no 
human power could extricate it from the ground, 
and he was forced to let go his hold and see it sink 
out of his longing ken. 



A2I0NG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 175 

Some young people, camping on the south side 
of Appledore, one summer, among the ancient 
graves, dug up a skeleton ; the bones crumbled to 
dust, but the skull remained intact, and I kept it 
for a long time. The Shoalers shook their heads. 
"Hog Island would have no Muck' while that 
skull remained above gTound." It had lain so long 
in the earth that it was no more repulsive than a 
bit of stone, yet a nameless dread invested it. At 
last I took it in my hands and pored over it till 
the shudder passed away forever, and then I w^as 
never weary of studying it. Sitting by the drift- 
wood blaze late into the still autumn nights alone 
at my desk, it kept me company, — a vase of bril- 
liant flowers on one side, the skull on the other, 
and the shaded lamp between, equally lighting 
both. A curious head it was, thick as an Ethiop's, 
w4th no space above the eyes, high above the ears, 
and heavy behind them. But 0, those hollows 
where the eyes once looked out, beholding the 
same sea and sky we see to-day ! Those great, 
melancholy, empty hollows, — what sort of crea- 
ture gazed from them 1 Cunning and malice, 
anger and hate, may have burned within them in 
sullen flame ; who shall say if any beauty ever 
illumined themi If hate smouldered here, did 
love ever look out and transfigure the poor, dull 



176 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

face 1 did any spark from the far heaven ever 
brighten it ? any touch of lofty thought or aspira- 
tion turn the clay to fire 1 And when, so many 
years ago, this being glided away from behind these 
awful windows and left them empty for ever and 
ever, did he find what in his life here he could not 
have possessed, with this head, which he did not 
make, and therefore was not responsible for 1 Many 
and many a question I put silently to the silent 
casket which had held a human soul ; there was 
no sound to answer me save only the great, gentle 
whisper of the sea without the windows, and now 
and then a sigh from the autumn wind. There 
came to me a sense of the pathos of the infinite 
patience of humanity, waiting so helplessly and 
blindly for the unravelling of the riddle that has 
troubled every thoughtful soul since the beginning 
of time. Little roots of plants were clasped about 
the temples. Behind the right ear were three 
indentations, as if made by some sharp instrument, 
suggesting foul play. An Indian tomahawk might 
have made those marks, or a pirate's cutlass : w^ho 
can say 1 What matter is it now 1 I kept the 
relic for months, till it crumbled so fast when I 
daily dusted it that I feared it would disappear 
entirely; so I carried it quietly back and laid it 
in the grave from which it had been taken, won- 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 177 

dering, as I drew the shallow earth over it, who 
had stood round about when it was buried for the 
first time, centuries ago ; what manner of people, 
and were they afraid or sorry. But there was no 
voice to answer me. 

I have before me a weird, romantic legend of 
these islands, in a time-stained, battered newspaper 
of forty years ago. I regret that it is too long 
to be given entire, for the unknown writer tells 
his story well. He came to the Shoals for the 
benefit of his fliiling health, and remained there 
late into the autumn of 1826, ''in the family of 
a worthy fisherman." He dilates upon the pleas- 
ure he found in the loneliness of the place, " the 
vast solitude of the sea; no one who has not 
known it can imbibe the faintest idea of it." 
" From the hour I learned the truth," he says, 
" that all which lives must die, the thought of 
dissolution has haunted me ; — the falling of a 
leaf, a gray hair, or a faded cheek, has power to 
chill me. But here in the recesses of these eternal 
rocks, with only a cloudless sky above and an 
ocean before me, for the first time in my life have 
I shaken off the fear of death and believed myself 
immortal." 

He tells his strange story in this way : *' It was 
one of those awfully still mornings which cloud- 

8* L 



178 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

gazers will remember as characterizing the autumn 
months. There was not a single vapor-wreath to 
dim the intense blue of the sky, or a breath to 
ruffle the almost motionless repose of the great 
deep ; even the sunlight fell seemingly with stiller 
brightness on the surface of it." He stood on a 
low, long point fronting the east, with the cliffs 
behind him, gazing out upon the calm, when sud- 
denly he became aware of a figure standing near 
him. It was a woman wrapped closely in a dark 
sea-cloak, with a profusion of light hair flowing 
loosely over her shoulders. Fair as a lily and as 
still, she stood with her eyes fixed on the far dis- 
tance, without a motion, without a sound. " Think- 
ing her one of the inhabitants of a neighboring 
island who was watching for the return of a fish- 
ing-boat, or perhaps a lover, I did not immediately 
address her ; but seeing no appearance of any ves- 
sel, at length accosted her with, *Well, my 
pretty maiden, do you see anything of him ? ' She 
turned instantly, and fixing on me the largest and 
most melancholy blue eyes I ever beheld, said 
quietly, * He will come again.' " Then she disap- 
peared round a jutting rock and left him marvel- 
ling, and though he' had come to the island (which 
was evidently Appledore) for a forenoon's stroll, 
he was desirous to get back again to Star and his 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 179 

own quarters after this interruption. Fairly at 
home again, he was inchned to look upon his ad- 
venture as a dream, a mere delusion arising from 
his illness, but concluded to seek in his surround- 
ings something to substantiate, or remove the idea. 
Finding nothing, — no woman on the island resem- 
bling the one he had met, — and " hearing of no 
circumstance which might corroborate the unac- 
countable impression," he resolved to go again to 
the same spot. This time it blew half a gale ; the 
fishermen in vain endeavored to dissuade him. He 
was so intensely anxious to be assured of the 
truth or fiction of the impression of the day be- 
fore, that he could not refrain, and launched his 
boat, " which sprang strongly upon the whitened 
waters," and, unfurling his one sail, he rounded a 
point and was soon safely sheltered in a small cove 
on the leeward side of the island, probably Babb's 
Cove. 

Then he leaped the chasms and made his way to 
the scene of his bewilderment. The sea was roll- 
ing over the low point ; the spot where he had 
stood the day before, " was a chaos of tumult, yet 
even then I could have sworn that I heard with 
the same deep distinctness, the quiet words of the 
maiden, 'He ivill come again,' and then a low, 
remotely-ringing laughter. All the latent super- 



180 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

stition of my nature rose up over me, overwhelm- 
ing as the waves upon the rocks." After that, 
day after day, when the weather would permit, 
he visited the desolate place, to find the golden- 
haired ghost, and often she stood beside him, 
"silent as when I first saw her, except to say, 
as then, *He will come again,' and these words 
came upon the mind rather than upon the 
ear. I was conscious of them rather then heard 
them, — it was all like a dream, a mysterious in- 
tuition. I observed that the shells never crashed 
beneath her footsteps, nor did her garments rustle. 
In the bright, awful calm of noon and in the rush of 
the storm there was the same heavy stillness over 
her. When the winds were so furious that I could 
scarcely stand in their sweep, the light hair lay 
upon the forehead of the maiden without lifting a 
fibre. Her great blue eyeballs never moved in 
their sockets, and always shone with the same 
fixed, unearthly gleam. The motion of her per- 
son was imperceptible ; I knew that she was here, 
and that she was gone." 

So sweet a ghost w^as hardly a salutary influence 
in the life of our invalid. She "held him with 
her glittering eye " till he grew quite beside himself. 
This is so good a description I cannot choose but 
quote it : " The last time I stood with her, was 



t^ ■■ ■■'1 l'-, ,t,l. 



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III i^^' 




AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 181 

just at the evening of a tranquil day. It was a 
lovely sunset. A few gold-edged clouds crowned 
the hills of the distant continent, and the sun had 
gone down behind them. The ocean lay blushing 
beneath the blushes of the sky, and even the 
ancient rocks seemed smiling in the glance of the 
departing day. Peace, deep peace was the pervad- 
ing power. The waters, lapsing among the caverns, 
spoke of it, and it was visible in the silent motion 
of the small boats, which, loosening their white 
sails in the cove of Star Island, passed slowly out, 
one by one, to the night-fishing." In the glow 
of sunset he fancied the ghost grew rosy and hu- 
man. In the mellow light her cold eyes seemed 
to soften. But he became suddenly so over- 
powered with terror that " kneeling in shuddering 
fearfulness, he swore never more to look upon that 
spot, and never did again." 

Going back to Star he met his old fisherman, 
who without noticing his agitation, told him quietly 
that he knew where he had been and what he had 
seen ; that he himself had seen her, and proceeded 
to furnish him with the following facts. At the 
time of the first settlement, the islands were infest- 
ed by pirates, — the bold Captain Teach, called 
Blackboard, being one of the most notorious. One 
of Teach's comrades, a Captain Scot, brought this 



182 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

lovely lady hither. They buried immense treas- 
m-e on the islands ; that of Scot was buried on an 
island apart from the rest. Before they departed 
on a voyage, "to phmder, slash, and slay," (in 
which, by the way, they were involved in one 
awful doom by the blowing up of a powder maga- 
zine), the maiden was carried to the island where 
her pirate lover's treasure was hidden, and made 
to swear with horrible rites that until his return, 
if it were not till the day of judgment, she would 
guard it from the search of all mortals. So there 
she paces still, according to our story-teller. 
Would I had met this lily-fair ghost ! Is it she, I 
wonder, who laments like a Banshee before the 
tempests, wailing through the gorges at Appledore, 
" He will not come again " '< Perhaps it was she 
who frightened a merry party of jDeople at Duck 
Island, whither they had betaken themselves for a 
day's pleasure a few summers ago. In the centre 
of the low island stood a deserted shanty which 
some strange fishermen had built there several 
years before, and left empty, tenanted only by the 
mournful winds. It was blown down the Septem- 
ber following. It was a rude hut with two rough 
rooms and one square window, or rather opening 
for a window, for sash or glass there was none. 
One of oar party proposed going to look after the 



AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 183 

boats, as the breeze freshened and blew directly 
upon the cove where we had landed. We were 
gathered on the eastern end of the island when he 
returned, and, kneeling on the withered grass where 
we were grouped, he said suddenly, " Do you know' 
what I have seen 1 Coming back from the boats, 
I faced the fish-house, and as I neared it I saw 
some one watching me from the window. Of 
course I thought it was one of you, but when I 
was near enough to have recognized it, I perceived 
it to be the strange countenance of a woman, wan 
as death ; a face young, yet with a look in it of 
infinite age. Old ! it was older than the Sphinx 
in the desert ! It looked as if it had been watch- 
ing and waiting for me since the beginning of 
time. I walked straight into the hut. There 
was n't a vestige of a human being there ; it was 
absolutely empty, " All the warmth and bright- 
ness of the summer day could hardly prevent a 
chill from creeping into our veins as we listened to 
this calmly delivered statement, and we actually 
sent a boat back to Appledore for a large yacht to 
take us home, for the wind rose fast and ^'gurly 
grew the sea," and we half expected the wan 
woman would come and carry our companion oflf 
bodily before our eyes. 

Since writing these imperfect sketches of the 



184 AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 

Shoals it has become an historical fact for the rec- 
ords of the State of New Hampshire that the town 
of Gosport has disappeared, is obliterated from the 
face of the earth, nearly all the inhabitants having 
been bought out, that the place might be converted 
into a summer resort. Upon Appledore a large 
house of entertainment has been extending its 
capabilities for many years, and the future of the 
Shoals as a famous watering-place may be consid- 
ered certain. 

The slight sprinkling of inhabitants yet remain- 
ing on Smutty-nose and elsewhere, who seem 
inclined to make of the place a permanent home, 
are principally Swedes and Norwegians ; and a 
fine, self-respecting race they are, so thrifty, clean- 
ly, well-mannered, and generally excellent that one 
can hardly say enough in their praise. It is to be 
hoped that a little rill from the tide of emigration 
which yearly sets from those countries toward 
America may finally people the unoccupied por- 
tions of the Shoals with a colony that will be a 
credit to New England. 



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